Blades Will Be Drawn
by Kare Uta
Summary: Tala can officially leave the Abbey now that the police have tore it down and sent Boris to prison and now he decides to move in with Kai in Japan. One problem, he feels like he's being watched and someone is most definitely after him. Slight OCXOC.
1. Intro

_**Blades Will Be Drawn **_

_**Chapter1 **_

Kai and Tala walked down the partly empty streets, the red-head constantly looking up at the sky with a blank and very vague trace of frustration on his face. "This is boring." He whispered furiously through gritted teeth.

Kai sighed and looked at Tala's expression, "Well I'm sorry that I can't be any more interesting or sociable." He said coldly.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Tala asked, clearly bored as he crossed his arms and kept walking aimlessly.

Kai rolled his eyes, sighing with a lot of frustration, "Tala you lived inside a dingy old abbey for most of your life, doing nothing but training for most of the hours of the day, eating one meal and sleeping about six hours, this can't be as boring or as dull as that." He commented, a small smirk on his face.

"You're right I can't but we need to get up and do something. I've been living here for a week and I still can't find anything good to do with my time."

Kai smirked at the younger boy's comment, placing a hand on the other boy's shoulder, "If that's what you're so worried about then go back to spending your day's training and working out." He whispered, although the eldest knew full well that the younger red-head wouldn't dare return to that kind of lifestyle.

"No way." Tala muttered, shrugging the other boy's hand off of him before he increased his pace and kept on walking.

Kai laughed as he was expecting that kind of reaction from an ex-team mate. He ran up behind Tala to join his old friend, walking on just behind him as he followed his team mate to wherever it was that he wanted to go at the time, seeing it as best that he were left alone to decide.

**---In The Same City---**

Somewhere on the outskirts of the city, among all the houses and all the people that walked along the old streets of Japan one house stood out most of all. A house that on the outside looked like it wasn't being looked after much aside from the few fresh flowers on the window sill outside. A short-haired sandy blonde late teenager's eyes shot open in complete shock, staring at the ceiling, his mouth gaping open in a silent cry over the instinct of taking a deep breath of clear air.

Closing his eyes again he took a few quick breaths before pulling his hands to his shoulders and squeezing them tightly. He opened his eyes and stared on blankly at the ceiling again as a few more flashes of light passed through his head and in front of his eyes. He visibly relaxed once he felt things return to what he considered to be a normal and just pace. He'd been sleeping on a long black leather bed, no covers of any kind covering him at all as his black t-shirt clung to him tightly. He sat up slowly as his head pounded, both hands behind his back as he used them to support himself. He didn't cease staring at the ceiling but at the same time he found himself drawing one knee a little closer to his chest, most likely on instinct trying to steady himself properly.

Through a thin white, almost see through curtain that divided his bedroom from the living room, you could plainly see an even skinnier figure get off a chair. The figure walked past the curtain and to the entrance that was just opposite to the bed. The shadowed figure seemed to have belonged to a teenage girl, about seventeen with shoulder length black hair. She placed a hand on the wall and looked inside the room as she leaned against the wall slightly, "What's up?" she asked quietly. The boy let out a low groan that sounded more like a whispered release of air. "Are you okay?" she persisted in asking. The scene girl was denied an answer and an emotionless look took over her extremely pale features took over. She let out a short sigh of annoyance and walked into the bedroom, sitting down in the armchair that was beside the bed. "The usual?" she asked softly.

The older boy had had his elbow resting on his drawn knee while he used his hand to support his throbbing skull and he now pulled it away. They boy looked over at the colder girl and as he looked on he had a certain softness in his gentle dark blue eyes. "I'm fine." He replied, speaking for the first time than he actually had in a few days, his tone of voice quiet and hoarse from lack of use.

The girl smirked, pulling a box of cigarettes out of her back pocket and pulling one out of the box. She tapped her cigarette against the top of the box before she spoke again, "You had better be, Kyo." She added coldly.

The one the girl had just called, 'Kyo' lay back down on the black bed and kept his hands on his slender stomach. He turned his head to look at his silent smoking companion, contemplating for only a moment before speaking, "You should get out more." He told her.

"I don't have a problem with this." The girl shrugged, the long fringe of black hair shadowing over one grey eye.

"You shouldn't adjust your lifestyle to mine." Kyoshi reminded.

Again the girl shrugged, standing up and moving the cigarette from her lips as she gave a uncaring and indifference look, "Like I've said already, I don't have a problem with this." She walked back to where she had entered from, placing her hand back onto the wall, "Get some more rest, we're meeting the others later tonight for a gig." She reminded, leaving the room before the other had any more time to protest.

**---Back With Tala and Kai- Later That Night---**

Tala lay curled up under the covers of his bed, groaning as he buried his face into the pillow. It was only nine thirty but he was already in bed and he actually couldn't help it this time as he had run out of things to do for the day and didn't intend on bothering Kai further to go out and do something.

Although, he wasn't quite complaining that he was in bed already either. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had an early night to get a few good hours of sleep. Abbey life hadn't exactly been the happiest of lives, especially when Boris was the one in charge and Voltaire Hiwatari called all the shots that went on and actually funded the whole thing. So right now he just didn't mind getting some rest, lying in a soft and actually comfortable bed in silence without having to force sleep upon himself because of training in the morning.

Most likely he spoke to soon as Kai walked into his bedroom a minute later, staring down a little angrily at the younger beyblader, "Come on, get up, we're going out." He ordered, flicking on the light switch by the door.

Tala sat up quickly once the lights shone through the sensitive layer of his eyes, "What? Where?" he asked confusedly, covering the top of his eyes with his hand to keep the light out till he adjusted to it well enough.

"Out for a drink, there's some band playing at a club and when I see you like this, it's not healthy for the both of us so we're going out."

Tala shook his head slowly and lay back down, yawning tiredly, "There's no need, I'm tired so I'm just going to bed." He protested, turning over onto his side and closing his eyes in an attempt to sleep.

Kai rolled his eyes, looking on and considering the sight of the teenage boy in bed already as a 'pitiful sight' so he walked over to Tala's side of the bed and pulled at the red-head's arm strongly. "Get up, we're going whether you like it or not." By the force Kai exerted on Tala's arm went to show how serious he was as to getting the other teenager out of bed.

"Alright, alright, I'll get up." Tala pulled his bruising arm out of Kai's extremely strong grip and pushed himself to get out of bed. "Just give me fifteen minutes." He walked out of his room and into the bathroom to get dressed again. The boy switched on the cold water tap of the sink, rubbing at his face to keep his eyes from drooping shut. He looked down at the water, jolting back on seeing a dark reflection in the water before it completely disappeared.

Tala figured it was a shadow or something of the sort and merely shrugged it off after only a moment. He ran his hands under the freezing cold water and wiped at his face which cooled him off in relevance to the heat his body was constantly emitting.

**A/N: Alright this fic is most definitely different to the things I've written in the past but I thought I'd write out the first chapter and post it to see what feedback I get from people. If this is liked then I should have the next chapter up soon. Take care everyone and please review!**


	2. Supernatural, A Whole Lot Of It

_**Chapter 2**_

"So where the hell are we going?" Tala asked, growing angrier by each step he took following Kai.

Kai shrugged slightly in regard to the younger boy's question, "I really have no idea, I just thought I'd say anything to get you out of bed. You being in bed by nine thirty is just sad."

Tala's eyes widened furiously, his hand snapping out of his pocket and gripping Kai's shoulder with a great force as he stopped him from walking any further, "You mean you got me out of the apartment to walk the streets till it was a good time for you to go back home?!" he exclaimed angrily.

"Pretty much." Kai shrugged off the other member's hand from his shoulder and kept on walking on down the street.

"And that thing about going for a drink?"

"We can still do that if you like." Kai told him, watching out of the corner of his eye as the angering red-head caught up beside him.

Tala grabbed Kai by the back of his shirt and dragged him into an alley on the side of the street they had currently been on. He pushed Kai against a wall, glaring daggers at his older, but no necessarily stronger team mate, "Why do you keep lying to get me out?" he asked.

Kai held onto Tala's shoulder firmly and spun around to hold Tala against the wall instead, "You have been trapped for all your life, that's sixteen uncomfortable years being tortured and now that you're living with me you expect me to just go on out and leave you alone inside? I can't do that to you, it isn't right or healthy." He scowled.

Tala had softened up against the wall, knowing full well that Kai wasn't about to hurt him for any reason possible, even if he did back talk like he did now, "Japan's made you soft, since when have you ever cared about being healthy or going out?"

"You're right, I don't care about my own health but when it comes to you then I'm careful and I actually care and I'm not about to watch you mess your life up."

Tala pushed Kai off of him, staring almost fragile-like but still holding a tough posture, "I'm not going to ruin anything but you don't need to push me around to do things you think are good for me."

"I'm not promising anything." Kai said coldly, turning to leave the alley way they had been arguing in.

Tala sighed and turned to follow his friend back out onto the street but one little thing stopped him. Just inches away from where he had been standing when Kai had pushed him against the wall was a dripping pipe, forming a small puddle of clear water underneath it. The strange part about it was that for some reason that puddle attracted him to it as he stared on at it, wondering why he felt so drawn to it.

Without Tala knowing, Kai walked up beside him and pretend to be interested in the puddle too before look over at the red-head, "You know, watching grass grow is more interesting than watching a puddle." He informed him, a growing smirk on his face.

Tala groaned, punched Kai in the shoulder and walked past him, "Let's go." He growled.

**---At The Bar---**

Two men, completely dressed in black sat down in a small room backstage, both looking on at their annoyed lead singer, "Hey, calm down Sakura, he'll be here." One man called out to her as she stared out the lone window of the room.

Sakura, the tall raven-haired girl gritted her teeth tightly and closed her eyes, "If that idiot makes us late I swear I'll…" It was most likely a very good thing that she had gotten cut off because in under a second Kyoshi opened the wooden door and stepped inside. Sakura's eyes could have had flames in them just to show how furious she was getting as she stormed up to him, "Where the hell have you been?" She whispered, hoping the other two in the room wouldn't hear.

Kyoshi clearly didn't seem phased by the girl's rudeness and just shrugged, "The night is young, I went for a walk." He answered quietly.

"With a show to perform in ten minutes? That was a smart idea now wasn't it, smart ass?"

"I got back in time didn't I?" Kyoshi shot back, raising an eyebrow at her with a smirk on his face when she didn't reply to his question. "Good. Now, you better cool off." He told her, running along her waist as he walked past her and sat back on the sofa.

Sakura shook her head, groaned loudly so all those in the room actually felt her annoyance and anger and watched as she stormed out of the room. Her storming continued up until she reached the bar, waving her hand at the bar tender who gave a short glass, most likely filled with whisky or some other form of alcohol. She gulped it down the second it arrived in front of her, she slammed it back down onto the surface in front of her and turned to walk off again.

Her path was blocked in the crowded bar as she slammed right into someone's chest, she fell back against the stool she had just gotten off and she took it as a moment to look up at her offender with the harsh look on her face never ceasing, "Watch it." Kai and Sakura yelled at each other in unison. "I think you should be more careful where you're going." The raven-haired girl shouted, getting up again and walking past him.

Sakura, now known to be the lead singer of the night's band, rolled up the sleeves of her black shirt and slipped the packet of cigarettes out of the pocket of her jeans. She let the cigarette trace through all her fingers as she fiddled with it, walking into the back room again and sitting down on the sofa between Kyoshi and the tallest male of the group. She continued to stare down at the cigarette as it past through each of her long thin fingers until she'd had enough and placed it to her lips. Just as she was about to pull out her lighter Kyoshi's hand got in front of her face and lit it with his own lighter.

Sakura put the cigarette between her two fingers, moving it away from her mouth before glancing at Kyoshi as he stared at the ceiling. Her eyes softened in a way that they hadn't for a few hours and the amount of eyeliner she always had on always made her look much tougher than she really was intending to look. "Thanks." She whispered to Kyoshi.

Kyoshi looked at her, giving her a small sweet smile and nod, knowing the girl long enough to know that a thank you was her way of say sorry for being rude. "We should get up and get this over with, shouldn't we?" Kyoshi spoke after a while.

Sakura tossed what was left of the cigarette away and looked down at her watch, "It's ten thirty so I guess we should." She agreed, also being picked up carefully off the sofa by Kyoshi.

**---With Tala and Kai---**

The two had settled at a table in the front, talking, drinking and certainly catching up a little. The two had been living together for over about a week now but in between Kai keeping an eye on Tala, training by himself and training the team it was hard to be able to even have a proper conversation with each other. Although, now that the Tyson had started traveling with his dad for a few weeks, and Max had gone to see his mom and Ray had gone back to his village to meet his friends he had a lot more time to spend with Tala like old times, or at least better than old times.

Once the four band members settled onto the stage, one of the two males on drums, the other as bassist, Kyoshi as guitarist and finally, Sakura as lead singer, something that most likely surprised most of the audience. The whole band all looked at each other first before the music slowly started up.

"So you were being serious about the band part." Tala muttered, staring on at two members of the band in particular. Sakura seemed familiar to him somehow but he couldn't quite tell from where. Kyoshi on the other hand, he remembered seeing in the street after looking at that puddle in the alley.

"_Well it rains and it pours  
When your out on your own  
If I crash on the couch  
Can I sleep in my clothes?  
'Cause I've spent the night dancing  
I'm drunk, I suppose  
If it looks like I'm laughing  
I'm really just asking to leave _

This alone, you're in time for the show  
You're the one that I need  
I'm the one that you loathe  
You can watch me corrode like a beast in repose  
'Cause I love all the poison  
Away with the boys in the band

I've really been on a bender and it shows  
So why don't you blow me a kiss before she goes?

Give me a shot to remember  
And you can take all the pain away from me  
A kiss and I will surrender  
The sharpest lives are the deadliest to lead  
A light to burn all the empires  
So bright the sun is ashamed to rise and be  
In love with all of these vampires  
So you can leave like the sane abandoned me

There's a place in the dark where the animals go  
You can take off your skin in the cannibal glow  
Juliet loves the beat and the lust it commands  
Drop the dagger and lather the blood on your hands, Romeo

I've really been on a bender and it shows  
So why don't you blow me a kiss before she goes?

Give me a shot to remember  
And you can take all the pain away from me  
A kiss and I will surrender  
The sharpest lives are the deadliest to lead  
A light to burn all the empires  
So bright the sun is ashamed to rise and be  
In love with all of these vampires  
So you can leave like the sane abandoned me

Give me a shot to remember  
And you can take all the pain away from me  
A kiss and I will surrender  
The sharpest lives are the deadliest to lead  
A light to burn all the empires  
So bright the sun is ashamed to rise and be  
In love with all of these vampires  
So you can leave like the sane abandoned me."

"They're pretty good." Kai pointed out to Tala.

"There's something about those two…" Tala couldn't help but say aloud.

Kai's face scrunched a little in some confusion, "Which two?" he asked, turning back to the band as he watched them all leave.

"The last two, the girl and the guy she's with." Tala replied.

Kai caught sight of the last two as they left the stage and nodded once he saw who Tala was talking about. "I've never seen the two before, where could you possibly know them from?" He asked.

"I saw that guy following us earlier on our way here." Tala pointed out quickly.

Kai smirked, almost resisting the urge to laugh, "Don't be paranoid Tala. I'm sure he wasn't following us and was just on his way here like us."

Tala tried to shrug it off and turned back to Kai, trying to force a small smile on his face while nodding, "Right."

**---With Kyoshi and Sakura---**

Kyoshi took Sakura's hand and dragged her to the side of the hall that lead them to the room they had been earlier. He looked up at the other two band members that had stopped and looked back at him, "Go on ahead and put the things in the car. We'll be there soon." He told them. The two nodded and kept on walking down the hall, leaving the other two alone.

Sakura turned from where she'd been watching the two leave and turned back to Kyoshi, "What is it?"

Kyoshi sighed and looked around after a second to make sure no one was around, "Did you see those two boy's in the front row?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah, I think so. Why?"

"That red-haired kid, I saw him earlier and she was following him, I scared her off but she might go after him again." Kyoshi answered her.

Sakura blinked in a little confusion before leaning back against the wall, "You shouldn't have confronted her by yourself." She stated coldly.

"I know but she was after him, I couldn't leave him alone or let her get to him, it's not like I could die or anything."

Sakura took his hand and shook her head, "It still hurts though."

"You're the one we should be worrying about, your singing was off today. Your daily check up?" Kyoshi asked carefully.

Sakura shrugged with some indifference before turning round to walk down the hall to the room again as she saw the others walk past with some of their stuff to take out to the car, "I don't care." She replied, walking down the empty hall and into the back room.

Kyoshi walked into the room behind her, shaking his own head at the thoughts of Sakura's disregard for her own life. He walked into the room, pushing the door closed behind him before walking over to her as she stood with her arms crossed in the centre of the room. He grabbed her carefully by her waist, gently lifting her off the ground and moving her to sit on a table. Sakura unconsciously slipped forward, leaning against Kyoshi's chest and losing complete consciousness once there.

**---With Tala and Kai--- **

The two teenagers walked exhaustedly into Kai's apartment, both going their separate ways to go to their rooms, "Good night, Tal." Kai called, walking into his bedroom and closing the door quietly behind him.

Tala yawned, the exhaustion and heat slowly getting the better of him as he slammed his bedroom door shut and collapsed onto his bed, rolling over onto his back to stare through blurred vision at the ceiling. He yawned yet again, crawled off the bed and changed for bed again before getting back under the cool light covers.

"Another day." He muttered, closing his eyes to sleep.

Tala would have to call himself crazy if he told himself that he'd heard someone say, "Yeah." In agreement to his quiet statement but he knew he'd heard it. He opened his eyes and looked around the room, seeing nothing there he decided to try to ignore it like he tried all the other things that had got him jumpy throughout the day. He lay back down, pulled the covers over him but found the heat in the room far too intensifying. Japan was just in the middle of a heat wave which was exhausting just about everyone that lived there. The tired red-head kicked the covers off his body again, then turning over onto his back and stretching his arm off the bed to reach the small fan that was currently on his nightstand. He hit the button hard and turned back onto his side, closing his eyes in an attempt to sleep for about the fourth time that night and sleep was finally granted.

**---Next Day--- **

Kai was currently lying on the sofa, a book being held above his head for him to read in the enjoyable freezing cold living room. In the meantime, Tala sat at Kai's computer, going through random things like pictures, files and his emails as he had agreed to keep in touch with Bryan, Spencer and Ian. The other three had decided they wanted to stay in Russia with the rest of the kids, to help look after them and make sure they were being treated right, as they after all where the oldest out of all the other Abbey kids.

The reason Tala decided to leave Russia was because he didn't want to be there for a while and Kai had offered for him to move in long before. He supposed he just couldn't stand being in Russia and no matter what Kai said and how much he disagreed, Tala was sure that Kai didn't enjoy living by himself.

Tala arched his back, stretching his muscles that had grown tense from being in front of the computer for the past three hours. "Two fans and an air conditioner and this place can still feel like an oven sometimes." Tala called out to Kai, wincing slightly as he rubbed at his shoulder muscles.

"Well for me it beats the ice and cold of Russia." Kai commented.

Tala got up from in front of the computer and walked over to the second sofa, falling back onto it, "My body is not used to this heat, I'm dieing over here." He complained.

Kai closed his book and threw it right at Tala, "And you say I've gone soft." He smirked, watching as the book almost hit Tala in the head, the red-head catching it just in time before it hit him in the head.

"You have." Tala said, throwing the book back to the other blader.

Kai sat up quickly and moved to the side, watching as the book flew past him, "And your aim is getting worse."

Tala groaned and rolled his eyes, "Yeah, a trainer that got you so sick you had to punch the wall a few hundred times, it does kind of cause some damage to your wrist and ruins your chances of being able to hit your ex-team mate in the head."

"Boris always was tough on you but you survived him for a long time." Kai pointed out to the youngest.

Tala shook his head, lying down comfortable, speaking as the ceiling was all he could see, "And because of it my body has years of abuse all over it."

"That's true but it's made you stronger so you shouldn't take it too hard now. You're here and he's in a Russian prison, you and everyone else are safe."

Tala sighed and shrugged slightly, "I guess you're right."

"Of course." Kai said, in some hope that he'd get a nicer and more cheery reaction from Tala. He hated seeing his friend so upset like the way he had been for the past few days. It was exhausting, watching a good friend of his be upset and depressed for countless hours. For most of the time there was no pleasing him, Tala didn't want to do anything and he never even wanted to relax. Even Kai could relax once in a while.

Tala sat up and smiled at Kai, "Don't push your luck." He warned him jokingly.

Kai laughed, that reaction was good enough for him. He got off the sofa and walked over to Tala, placing a hand out for the red-head to take, "Come on."

Tala took the hand and pushed himself off the couch, looking at Kai with confusion, "We're going somewhere?" he asked.

"Yeah, swimming." Kai replied, walking past Tala and into his bedroom.

Tala's eyes widened, then his eyebrow furrowed with more confusion than earlier, "Out in this heat?" He asked, walking up to the bedroom door, looking inside at Kai moving around his room.

"If you're talking about a beach, of course not, I'm not suicidal at the moment so thanks but I'm talking about the indoor pool at the gym. Its usually closed today but I know the owner and the place is practically fully air-conditioned so at least you won't be dieing of heat exhaust." Kai explained, walking right up to Tala, for some reason still with a smirk on his face. Tala was in the very short process of rejecting the idea and protesting to stay home but Kai just spun him round and pushed him by his shoulders out of his bedroom, "Go change." He ordered him, walking back into his room and closing the door.

Tala sighed, just a little frustrated. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy hanging out with Kai and going out but he just didn't want to these days. Going out was a prize after living in the Abbey for so long but after all those things he'd been seeing and the uneasiness he was feeling just made him feel untrusting to the outside world. He went to his room and changed to go swimming, he might as well go without problems and like Kai had said, no one would be there so he was safe wasn't he?

**---At The Gym--- **

Kai was constantly moving around in the indoor swimming pool; from where he was swimming he was constantly watching Tala who was almost looking like a spoilt upset brat on a deck chair. "Stop pouting, you're human, you'll get wrinkles." He ducked under the water out of Tala's sight but more than anything he was sure that Tala was muttering some sarcastic comment.

Once he ran out of breath, he brought his head just above the water, watching as Tala walked closer to the pool, sitting at the edge with his legs hanging into the water. "I still don't understand why you couldn't let me just go to work out once we're here." He voiced to Kai, staring on at his feet as he kicked water at Kai.

"Let me see…" Kai started, pretending to think before speaking again, "Maybe it's because you don't need any more working out."

"This is coming from the guy who puts his team through boot camp every morning!" Tala exclaimed, giving Kai an upset look for being such a hypocrite.

"Hey I have reasons for that!" Kai defended himself.

Tala raised an eyebrow at Kai, curling his lips slightly, "Such as?"

Kai rolled his eyes at Tala and the stupid question, "Such as they eat enough to feed the damn army." He replied.

"That's still no reason to treat them so hard." Tala pointed out to him.

Kai looked like he was in deep thought for a moment, he pushed himself back in the water and rested his back against the wall, "Alright, so when the team is back here, you'll train them instead of me, twice a week." He informed him, smirking once he looked up to see the red-head's reaction.

Tala's mouth dropped open a little, blinking in surprise, "What?" he asked.

Kai laughed, "You heard me the first time I said it."

"Why would you want _me_ to run _your_ team?" Tala asked skeptically.

"I need a few days off in a week and you don't have much to do, you're familiar with training and I think training with our team would do you some good. Then you won't have to stay at home all day by yourself. We all win."

"What if the team doesn't want me there?" Tala asked quietly, stopping any movements and just staring down at the slow moving water.

"Who cares about what they want when it comes to training? They also want more breaks but that doesn't mean I'm going to give them what they want." Kai replied, resisting the urge to laugh at his own comments.

"You're a really evil person." Tala muttered, looking on grimly at Kai. Still looking down at the water, he noticed more shadows at the bottom that moved in front of him and moved forward. "What is that?" he asked, staring on with his mouth only seconds from dropping open completely.

Kai looked at Tala strangely, then to the place Tala was staring, seeing absolutely nothing there. Kai turned back to Tala, jumping up onto the side of the pool to sit next to Tala, looking at him carefully as Tala continued staring on. Kai sighed and quietly spoke, "You must be tired, go relax and we can leave soon."

Tala shook his head and pushed himself off the edge and into the water. Before Kai could take in what the red-head was doing Tala ducked under the water, opening his eyes under there and looking in the direction he'd seen the shadow. There in front of him he saw a tall girl smirking evilly at him, she wore a long purple dress and purple heels, standing casually on the pool's floor. She had shoulder length dark brown hair with shining grey eyes. The most terrifying part of her being under there was the fact that…the girl's dress and hair was perfectly dry.

The young blader felt someone grab his shoulder and he suddenly gasped for breath, pushing himself back up to the surface of the water for some fresh air. Kai stood just behind him in the water, "What the hell is wrong with you?" he lashed out angrily.

Tala turned his head again to look in the direction he'd seen the girl and suddenly seeing her there, he subconsciously moved his hand up a little and started gently hitting the front of Kai's shoulder to get his attention. Kai was looking in the same direction at the time, just staring on in absolute bewilderment, slowly grabbing Tala's hand after a while of being hit in the shoulder. "You see it now?" Tala whispered.

The girl had her head above water, well just half way through her nose so all that could be seen were her eyes and her dry hair. She continued to stare on with a sense of evil in her eyes and just by looking at the expression you could tell she was smirking under the water.

Kai moved a little forward, pushing Tala behind him, "Who are you?" he growled angrily.

The girl practically levitated out of the water, standing on the water as though she were standing on solid ground which was far from it. She smirked down at them, particularly at Kai before stepping closer once, "If you're worried that I'm after you, don't be…I'm after him." She pointed at Tala, making the red-haired teenager grip Kai's shoulder and pull him back.

"Leave him alone." Kai scowled, pushing Tala further behind him in hopes of protecting him, forgetting that Tala had his own pride to maintain and could protect himself. Probably he just wanted to protect him because he knew that ever since Tala had left the Abbey he had grown weaker from injuries and realizations of the past that weren't any helpful.

Tala moved closer in line with Kai's ear and whispered quietly, "This is why I told you I recognized that singer from. She looks like her and this girl I've seen has been showing up everywhere." He whispered.

The girl on the water laughed, she stepped closer again and kneeled down on the water in front of Kai, "You two can whisper all you like, I can still hear you." She whispered maliciously, the sadistic smirk still on her face.

"Who are you?!" Tala lashed out angrily.

Out of no where came two bullet shots, one hitting the girl in the shoulder while the other hit and chipped the stone of the end of the pool. Tala and Kai moved on out of the pool while the girl was distracted by the shots that had been aimed at her. "You again?!" The girl shot angrily at the intruder on the window.

A raven-haired girl sat on the window sill, looking on fiercely at the other girl, "What did I tell you about scaring people to death?" she jumped off the window and walked over to the pool, "Leave." She ordered in a loud and demanding voice that echoed through the empty room, her gun gripped tighter in her hand.

"Why don't you?"

"Leave, Hana. I'm serious."

'Hana' turned back to Kai and Tala, walking on the water till she reached solid ground, she smiled at the two of them as they stood there emotionlessly, "I'll visit again, don't worry." She whispered, laughing as she turned and dived into the water and disappeared.

Tala and Kai looked at each other, neither of them having any speck emotion on either of their faces as they weren't too sure how to react to the events they had just been a part of. They heard a quiet clicking from the other side of the room from the girl's gun which made the two bladers turn their attention back to her. She'd just latched her gun to the back of her trousers, which conveniently was covered by her black jacket. She slowly looked up at them, once seeing them staring back at her she slowly walked over to them, "Are you two okay?" she asked casually, the two obviously wondering where she came from and why she acted like nothing had just happened.

"We're fine." Tala answered for them both.

"Who was that? And who are you?" Kai asked. Clearly being scared half to death by some unknown creature still wasn't enough to change Kai Hiwatari's cold and breakable exterior as the way he spoke was cold and clear as he always had been through the years.

The girl smirked, tugging the hair band out of her hair to let the high bun of black hair fall to her shoulders, "Just as long as you're okay." She told them, turning and hoping back onto the windowsill and jumping out through there for her exit.

Tala turned to Kai quickly, "You still think I'm tired and need to rest?" he asked angrily, shouting slightly.

"Actually I think now we need a drink." Kai corrected himself, answering Tala's angered question in the process.

"That's the singer Kai! You couldn't tell because she doesn't look the same way as when we saw her last night." Tala said quickly.

Kai didn't answer, just turned and walked past Tala and to his backpack, picking it up and tossing the towel in there, "Let's go back home. We'll discuss it there." It was strange, he was acting like he didn't want to talk about what had happened, not yet at least or maybe he just didn't care about what had been said by that water girl.

**---With Sakura--- **

Sakura walked down the streets till she arrived across the street from her house. She walked across the empty road and slid her key into the door; she looked around and slipped inside the house when she realized no one was actually looking. She walked into the apartment, taking her trainers off by the door and dropping her denim jacket over them. She stepped into the very well lit living room, peeking in from there through the thin curtain of Kyoshi's room.

She sighed and walked through the living room and into the doorway of the bedroom, standing there and looking down at Kyoshi who lay on his back on his leather bed, tear streaks more than clear on his pale cheeks. Once he saw her standing there he sat up quickly and tried to glare at her but with his gentleness he wasn't able to pull it off too well, "How could you do that?" he asked, speaking as though it took every breath he had in his body to speak.

"I couldn't let you stop me." Sakura answered. She was the complete opposite to Kyoshi very surprisingly because he was the gentle type, the one that couldn't really stay mad for too long but if it called unto that then he definitely could, especially if he took an action as a personal offence. Sakura on the other hand was the type that was cold-hearted when she had to be and could stay mad for hours just to prove a point to a person.

"You didn't need to leave like that! You didn't need to leave the curtains open like that and you didn't need to abandon me in here like that." Kyoshi shot off his bed and walked over to Sakura, pulling her into the room, his right gripping at her neck tightly.

Sakura didn't seem too phased by his actions, standing calmly there with her air way constricting slowly. "I had to keep you safe." She breathed out slowly.

"And what about keeping _you_ safe? I have to look after you because you clearly can't so leaving me here wasn't right." Kyoshi let go of her and pushed her out of his bedroom door into the sun lit hall way.

Sakura didn't persist by walking into the room again, she just leant against the wall and slid down it, resting her arm on her drawn knee, "You haven't been well, you don't look right at all." She told him from her position.

Kyoshi sat down on his bed, resting his head in his hand, "Why are you trying to protect someone who can't die?!" he exclaimed, choking slightly on his words.

The raven-haired teenager exhaled and rested her head back against the wall, staring at the ceiling, "You haven't been drinking any blood lately, even if you have the opportunity and because of it you don't look well."

"It's none of your business!" Kyo called out rudely.

"But you're growing weak and now…"

Kyoshi interrupted by yelling angrily at her, "Would you prefer it if I drank yours?!" Sakura didn't reply to him but at the same time Kyoshi visibly relaxed after he'd said that, staring at a point on the wall as he thought and tried to speak at the same time, "I…live by draining the lives of others. Do you know what that's like for me? Sometimes I can't stand doing it so I don't, sort of like a starvation diet. Do you think that's fun?!" he lashed out again finally.

The young girl slowly got off the ground, walking across the living room and closing the window there so that not so much light shone through the curtains to Kyoshi's room. She slowly walked up to Kyoshi, watching as he buried his teary face in his hands, Sakura kneeling on the ground in front of him. She took a deep breath and pulled one hand off of the boy's face, taking it carefully in her hand as both her thumbs massaged the skin of his hand.

Her thumb accidentally ran over a burn that spread over his knuckles, she continued to stare down at it for a while before kissing the hand softly. Kyoshi continued to look at her strangely as she'd finished that action, she looked up at him warmly, the first time she'd looked at him so caringly in a while, "I don't…expect you living like this to be fun but I'm only trying to keep you safe."

"But you're the one that needs to be kept safe, not me!" Kyoshi whispered.

Sakura laughed quietly, "I can take care of myself perfectly fine, I had a good teacher." She smiled up at her mentor, letting go of his hand and getting off the ground. She walked out of the room, closing the window's curtains and walked back into the bedroom with a small box in her hand. She sat down on the ground, crossing her legs with the first-aid kit on her, tearing off a small piece of cotton wool and pouring some antiseptic onto it. "You think you're going to be well enough to play tonight?" she asked quietly, gently dabbing around the burn. She let out a small laugh, "I'm sorry, I'm pushing it." She whispered to him, moving closer and closer to the wound.

"No, you're not and I'll be fine, it's just a small burn." Kyoshi tried a small laugh of his own; a part of him regretting his yelling at the girl, another part of him feeling relieved he got it all of his chest.

"Sunlight on a vampire's skin turns out to be more than just a little burn, that's why I'm being so careful with this." Sakura whispered in regards to the second degree burn she was tending to attentively.

Kyoshi smiled giving her a quick kiss on the top of her head, "Right because I know for a fact that you're not this sweet and careful with just anyone."

**---With Kai and Tala--- **

"So the plan is, we watch their show, then before they leave we question the singer about what happened today and who that Hana was." Tala went over their so called plan to Kai as they walked down the streets to the club from the night before. It was no secret that the band played there every few nights from nine thirty onwards. They were rumored to only play at night as no one had ever been to a gig of theirs that had been organized in the day time and all the performances were over with by eleven thirty.

"And ask her why Hana is after you and ask why she was there today." Kai added. The guy had been in a gloomy all day ever since they'd got back from the gym and it was most likely out of the thought that someone was after Tala and that someone wasn't normal.

"It's a plan so let's get in there." Tala indicated towards the door to the bar they were at the night before, Kai going inside with Tala following close behind. "What are they doing playing here already?!" Tala blurted out upon seeing the band already up on stage playing.

Kai shrugged slightly but grabbed Tala by the arm and pulled him to the seat at the front, near by to where they had sat the day before. "You think she recognizes us?" Kai asked him, keeping an eye on the whole band as they played.

"I think she'd be really stupid if she didn't." Tala pointed out understandably.

"Very good point there."

**A/N: That's chapter two of this new fic! It's quite long compared to the first chapter so I hope you enjoyed this. Please leave a review and tell me what you think!**


	3. Trying To Come To An Agreement

_**Chapter 3**_

The whole band raced off stage after a total of six different songs, Kyoshi and Sakura behind the rest to talk, "If they keep following us they're going to get hurt." Sakura whispered harshly.

"They need to be protected so them catching up to us might be a good thing." Kyoshi disagreed with her, probably not his wisest decision but that never stopped him from speaking his mind at least.

"Well that could…" Sakura was about to take her next step when her knee gave way, making her land on her knees as she held herself up on her hands.

Kyoshi sighed and kneeled down beside her in the small hallway. He didn't dare touch her, he knew better than to try that but he still looked concerned, an emotion that couldn't really be helped by anyone, "You need to get checked out, you drank far too much before the show so let's go before this kills you." He stood up again, watching over her as she pushed herself off the ground and walked on down the hall to the backstage room.

Sakura hoped up onto the table, sitting there uncaringly swinging her legs as she unbuttoned her shirt and placed it by her side. Kyoshi turned back to her with a back pack in hand before placing it beside her, taking in her pale skinny form covered in randomly placed scars. A body he wasn't exactly ashamed to say he knew well, since seeing her like that was a daily thing. He stood in front of her, placing two gentle hands on both her shoulders, arching them forward slightly so he could take a look at the deeper stitched up cuts on her back.

The young girl squeezed her eyes shut, gripping onto Kyoshi's shirt as she rested against him while he traced his hand along each of the stitches to make sure all were secure. That action along with all those that were to follow where cut short, as Kai and Tala chose that to be the perfect time to barge in. Kyoshi turned to them, standing in front of Sakura as she sighed and put her shirt back on. "Can we help you?" Kyoshi asked, crossing his arms. These were the times Kyoshi tried to play the tough guy, whenever he wanted to do one thing but Sakura held him back because she was telling him things he knew she was right about.

"You both can apparently." Kai said coldly, crossing his arms too as he looked on at Kyoshi.

"Your friend over there stopped some psycho girl from attacking us today." Tala informed Kyoshi, probably not realizing that Kyoshi already knew where Sakura had been the other day, "And I saw you following us in the street yesterday."

Sakura jumped off the table, standing beside Kyoshi and staring on at the two across the room in a cross manner, "If you're here to thank me for saving you then it isn't needed but as for what Kyoshi was doing following you that's up to him to give you a reason for." She spoke as coldly as she looked before she walked forward to the door but once about to open it Kai placed an arm out in her way to keep her from leaving.

Sakura and Kai began glaring daggers at each other for a minute before Kai decided to speak, "I think him stalking us is the least of our worries at the moment."

"Oh so you _don't_ want an apology for walking in the same street as you?" Kyoshi asked, quite enjoying it when he was able to act stupid.

"So what is it you do want?" Sakura asked. She sat down comfortably on the sofa, her arms behind her head as she put her feet up on the table.

"An explanation, why is that person or thing after me?" Tala was quick to ask that, stepping forward and staring right down into Sakura's face which only remained cold and passive, staring back at him till she could possibly think of a plausible answer.

The girl clearly wasn't bothered to be quick enough to give him one and just remained staring on at him. Kyoshi couldn't stand such arguments, there just was too much tension, "She wont be coming after you again if that's what you're worried about." He intervened.

"So she's dead?" Kai asked, turning to him.

"No. Technically not at least."

"Just tell us who she is." Tala lashed out now at Sakura, hoping so much for answers. Some people wouldn't think that the guy would take such a thing to heart but the thing was that he was getting tired of being followed around and not being able to have a peaceful life. Not to mention that for the past week, he thought he was going crazy and now that he found out that he wasn't, he wanted to know who that girl was and who the other two in the room where.

Sakura sighed quietly, the three males in the room making her drastically uncomfortable, "Her name is Hana and if you think she has some kind of personal grudge against you or something, that's not it, she's just like that with a couple of people. You're one out of a hundred."

"Saku!" Kyoshi shouted, clearly a little upset with the way she was speaking.

"What? I'm telling it like it is." Sakura shrugged, turning her head to look at Kyoshi who began a small glare of his own.

"You could be just a little bit more polite to them." Kyoshi insisted loudly.

Sakura closed her eyes for only a moment, then looking up at Kai and Tala with a forced kindness, "Fine, what I'm trying to say is that this is not the first time things like this have happened, you aren't the first and you're not the only one that needs to be protected so get out of here."

"Saku!" Kyoshi shouted again, his hands dropping by his sides in an action of defeat.

"I tried! I give up." The lone girl in the room pushed herself up off the sofa, pushing harder past the intruding beybladers and out the door, picking up her backpack on the way out. Once being out in the loud bar she muttered, "Why didn't I storm out sooner? Right, its cause Kyoshi would have killed me sooner." She reasoned with herself.

Kyoshi sighed, walking closer to the other two, "Excuse her, she hasn't been well lately." He apologized.

Kai raised an eyebrow at him, looking on disbelievingly, "You mean to tell me she isn't always like this?"

"Yeah because we've seen how angry looking she is on stage." Tala added, agreeing with Kai's statement.

Kyoshi really really didn't want to answer a question like that for mainly two reasons, Sakura would kill him and it was none of their business so he attempted in changing the subject, "I don't think that's the reason you came here." He reminded.

"Right, so you're going to tell us who that girl was?"

Kyoshi bit down hard on his lower lip, bad thing to see was what he'd figured out, "Not intentionally but I can tell you that you wont be in any danger. Sakura and I are working on it so you kids shouldn't have to worry."

"Hey, first off we aren't kids." Tala pointed out angrily, sounded like someone was a little touchy when being called a kid.

"What are you? Fourteen or something?"

"Seventeen." Kai answered coldly, that not seeming to change through out the whole conversation.

"Sixteen." Tala accounted for himself, his tone of voice not changing either.

"You are kids." Kyoshi muttered to himself, not letting the other two know he'd said anything.

"None of that is the point though. The point is that we got attacked today by something that isn't even human and we want to know what that thing was." Kai shouted.

"How many times must you be told that there's nothing to worry about?" Kyoshi asked him calmly, he wasn't the type that was just going to lash out at the others.

Tala smirked, he just loved trying to trick people into talking, "If it's nothing to worry about then you wouldn't have any problems whatsoever with telling us about it."

Kyoshi rolled his eyes though, things weren't going according to anyone's plans that day. He turned, picked up his things and walked towards the door, "I need to go before Sakura gets hurt but I'm sorry you came here and wasted your time."

With a nagging sense of guilt dragging at him he turned and left the room, hurrying down the hall so they wouldn't catch up with him and he could leave without being forced to speak about the girl he'd been asked so much about.

**---2am-**** With Sakura--- **

The girl sat tiredly on the sofa, dark bags already appearing under her eyes as she slowly got more and more tired. She continued running the bristles of her hair brush through the long raven-black silky hair. She heard the front door click open and she placed her brush on the glass table, sitting there with her hands in her lap, tightening on the hem of the mid-thigh baggy white t-shirt she was wearing.

Kyoshi stepped into the living room, at first in an attempt to walk into his bedroom, well until he saw Sakura sitting on the sofa at least. "What are you doing still up?" He asked her, a little alarmed.

"Waiting for you, I got a little worried when you didn't show up."

The blonde-haired boy couldn't help but smirk at her answer, then walking past her and into his bedroom, "I just went out for a while, needed to enjoy the night while it lasted. You should know by now that there was no need to worry or stay up so long." While speaking he dropped back onto his leather bed, sitting up and kicking off his shoes by the bed.

"You have been acting stupid lately, I wasn't sure what to think you'd do once the sun came up." Sakura got off the sofa and into Kyoshi's room, standing with her shoulder against the solid wall that was the entry way's frame. "So what did you do about those kids? Have you killed them or should I let Hana do it?"

"They seem like good kids, a little too curious which might get them hurt so we should keep an eye on them."

"We? You're the one who wanted to be nice to them."

Kyoshi looked over at Sakura, looking on blankly with one question running through his mind, _'How could she be so cold about this?'_ He sighed and placed his hands behind his head, staring up at the white ceiling, "You know as well as I do we need to make sure Hana doesn't go after them again. If you don't help me look after them then I'll do it by myself…no matter what it costs me." He sounded like he was warning her at the same time as threatening her, sound monotonous the whole way through, sounding like what he was saying didn't damper his bravery in the least.

Sakura smirked, pushing herself off the wall and taking a step into the room, "You know I'm only messing, I'll keep an eye on them tomorrow but right now, they're not my priority, you are."

"I told you I'm fine."

The girl continued to look on at him for a few minutes, after a while walking over to his bedside table and kneeling on the ground. She slid the lighter off the surface and slowly began lighting each of the candles that the room was adorned with. She'd always thought that Kyoshi's love for candles was stupid but she knew it was comforting to him and didn't hesitate in trying to make him feel better in one of her many ways. She turned back to him, in the meantime tossing the lighter onto the bedside table, "She went after you today didn't she?" She sat down on the armchair, running her fingers through her hair the whole time she waited for an answer.

Kyoshi looked over at her, his eyes holding a shred of some certain emotion, one a little identifiable. An emotion that was a mixture of sadness and confusion along with something else that couldn't be read, "How'd you know?" he asked her.

"You still have the bullet holes in the back of your shirt and the blood is staining your bed."

Kyoshi sighed, frustrated as he'd forgotten about the blood on his back. The bullet wounds heal within seconds of piercing the skin but the holes in his shirt and blood on the material always remained there so he constantly forgot about cleaning it up to keep Sakura from finding out. "Yeah she found me but I'm fine…I always am." He told her, sounding bored as he slid his shirt off over his head and dumped it onto the floor. He wiped at the blood that was on the leather, wiping his hand in his jeans before lying back down, "You should go to bed, you need to sleep."

"I have plenty of time to sleep in the daytime."

"You need to look after those kids in the daytime." Came the blonde boy's reminder.

"True but I'll manage and I'm not going to bed till I make sure that you're alright."

"I can't even get scratched, remember?"

Kyoshi had just been sitting up, his legs stretched out in front of him with his hands behind his back to support himself. The position made it easier for Sakura to sneak into a sitting position behind him, placing both her hands onto his shoulders and carefully massaging them. Kyoshi crossed his arms over his chest, catching both of her hands and squeezing them tightly in his, "Don't." he ordered her. Sakura wrapped her arms around him the way they were, resting her cheek against his bare back, looking down at it and the scars pale scars that ran down the even paler flesh. Her long nail ran deeply along some of the scars on the lower right side of his back, pressing down on some of the seemed to be bruised places with her finger till she was sure he cringed, "Stop doing that." He growled coldly.

Sakura sat up straight and tilted her head to the side slightly, smirking scarcely, "Because it hurts?" she asked him quietly.

"And because it's annoying!" Kyoshi barked at her, shrugging her off of him.

Sakura placed her palm against the small of Kyoshi's back where the sensitive skin had been, forcing her hand down onto it slowly harder and harder to increase the pain on it. "I'm going to go to bed and you're going to relax but tomorrow before I leave to look after those kids, I'm going to check on all of these." She didn't get an answer from the boy in front of her, instead she watched for a second as he kept on staring at the curtain outside in the hall way. "Heard me?" she asked him, increasing the pressure. The stubborn boy continued to refuse to answer her which in turn made her increase and tighten her hand around the already bruising skin to force an answer out of him, "Heard me?" she asked him again.

"Yes." Kyoshi breathed out painfully, the pressure being too much, making his hand jolt to his side to try to pry off her hand from the wounded skin of his. His vampire healing wasn't to perfection clearly as he always had the after-pain of all his wounds, even if they'd healed for him.

Sakura smiled, giving him a peck on the cheek before getting up and turning to leave, "Good night." She told him, flicking off the light switch, leaving the bedroom and walking down the hall to her own room.

Kyoshi arched back slightly, stretching his side muscles carefully before lying back. He reached over to the other end of the bed, his hand gently coming across a thin white sheet, almost transparent like the curtains. He dragged it over his body and continued to look at his magnified shadow on the wall that was warmly lit by the soothing candles in the room.

**---In The Meantime- With Kai and Tala--- **

Kai walked out of his bedroom, running his fingers through his hair as he looked at the upset red-head sitting on the sofa with unfocused eyes, "What are you doing up? It's 2:30 in the morning, you've had a rough couple of days so you should be sleeping at this time."

"Couldn't sleep." Tala told him, sitting back and staring up at his ex-captain and current best-friend, looking on with some sadness.

Kai took in a deep breath, exhaling quietly as he said down beside Tala, sitting forward with his forearms resting on his knees, one hand rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, "That whole Hana thing?" he asked him quietly.

"It's nothing. Go back to bed." Tala ordered coldly.

Kai put a hand on Tala's shoulder, giving it an intentionally kind squeeze, the only form of support and kindness he was really capable of. Tala being around was changing him slightly as all Kai wanted to do was protect and care for his friend, something he couldn't do without getting rid of his cold façade for a while. "Tal, talk to me."

"She's after me for some reason and I don't know why, I don't even know who she is and its all getting to me."

"Then don't let it." Kai told him, making it sound easier than it actually was. "What I mean is, don't let something you can't control bother you for now. Tomorrow we'll find those two again and we'll get some answers but to be able to you're going to need your rest." He tried to sound as reasonable and supportive as he possibly could at 2:30am and through his cold hearted attitude but it seemed as though he got through to the other teenager partly.

"I think I see now why Boris chose you to be the leader." Tala smirked, making Kai smirk with him once he'd said it.

Kai stood up, looking down at Tala with an almost peaceful and kind look on his face, as peaceful and kind as he could get of course, "Go to bed, I'll see you in the morning."

"Sure, good night." With their good nights they both parted to get a few more hours of sleep as both knew till they found out who was after Tala they weren't going to be taking things so lightly and they needed all the help and rest they could possibly get.

**---Next Morning--- **

Kyoshi sat up a little startled on his bed, looking around him frantically. He looked down at the ground, his blanket had fallen off of him during the night due to all the movement and now just lay on the ground. He looked over at the bedside table, the alarm clock clearly had been switched off since now it read that it was three in the afternoon when the alarm was meant to ring at ten. "Good afternoon!" A cheerful voice rang out from the living room.

Kyoshi looked up, startled for the second time within five minutes. Entering his room he saw a young girl walking in with a tray of breakfast in hand, smiling happily, "Hey, I didn't know you were going to be here." He whispered, not realizing how hoarse he actually sounded.

The girl laughed and placed the tray of food down on the nightstand, "None of us knew really. Sakura called me this morning and said you had a rough night, she had to go out to run some errands for you and she asked me if I could come over and make breakfast."

"You didn't need to."

"I felt like I did and I'm glad I didn't come, I haven't seen your cheeks this red since you fell down the stairs with a fever and that was about four years ago." The girl continued to laugh quietly as she sat down at the end of the bed, her hands in her lap as she looked on at Kyoshi with a smile on her face.

Kyoshi laughed, remembering that time a few years back when he'd had a severe fever and had insisted he was fine. Sakura had let him out of bed just so that she could prove a point and she did, a point that was later filled with laughter. He'd just got to stairs, just finished telling Sakura and the other girl that he was fine and just when he turned to the stairs he slipped and fell down to the bottom of the staircase. It may have sounded cruel but Sakura and the girl could only laugh at him for that while Kyoshi sat up and just turned bright red with humiliation. "It's just the heat is getting to me at the moment, don't worry about it, Nin." He assured her quietly.

Nin stood up, walking over by the door and leaning against the wall, her hands behind her back, "Well Sakura sounded a little concerned, even if it was just a little bit, it was there and that takes a lot for her to feel."

"She doesn't have any reason to be concerned but I'll assure her I'm fine when she gets back."

"You'd better be fine." The girl moved off the wall and smiled again, "Have breakfast and rest, I need to go back home, I've got a ton of things I still need to do there but if you need anything then call me." She moved off the wall and past through the bedroom door, waving happily at Kyoshi as she left, "Bye!"

"Hey, Nin! Before you leave could you close the curtains please?" Kyoshi asked, irritation growing slightly at the amount of sun light that lit the hallway.

Nin appeared in the door way again, crossing her arms and staring out the window, "Sakura gave me very strict orders not to, I'm not sure why but she was serious so I can't, sorry." She sounded a little uncomfortable, even guilty for going against Kyoshi's request, even if she didn't know why Sakura wanted them open. "I'll call and check in on you later if Sakura isn't back soon, ok?" she asked.

"Sure, bye." Kyoshi lay back down, staring at the ceiling but sometimes glancing at the breakfast on the table beside him as he closely listened and heard Nin leave the house. He sleepily rubbed at his eyes, widening his eyes slightly to try to focus on the a point on the ceiling, his vision blurring too much and the sun's heat that shone in not helping him in the slightest. Bright white lights continuously danced in front of his eyes, all cutting through his eyes and heart like a painful saw.

Through it and the ear piercing sound that rang in his head constantly he hadn't heard Sakura enter the house and stand just outside his room out of his view. Once she couldn't hear his ragged breathing anymore she peeked into the bedroom, "Hey." She said.

Kyoshi sat up slightly, seeing her there without a shred of emotion on her face, "Hey." He greeted.

"We should talk." Sakura said, walking into the room and sitting at the end of the bed.

Kyoshi struggled to sit up but managed after a while, "What about?" he asked her.

"Last night. I didn't mean to hurt you so much, alright?"

Kyoshi shrugged, "Okay I guess." He said. His eyebrow furrowed, looking on with a bit of confusion as he took her hand and stretched her bandaged arm slightly, taking a good look at it before looking up at her, "What happened?"

Sakura smiled as best she could, a sincere sweet one that was rarely seen, "Don't worry but let's not talk about me for now. Have you decided what you're going to do for blood?"

Kyoshi sighed, his head in his hands as he shook it, "I can't right now."

"Alright, just make sure you get some soon." Sakura warned.

Kyoshi ignored that statement and didn't answer, thinking that since he couldn't promise anything then he shouldn't talk about it. He shook his head slightly of some thoughts and closed his eyes for a second, "How'd it go with those kids?"

Sakura accepted the subject change and nodded, "I found little about them but amongst the little things, I found out their names are Kai and Tala. Tala moved here from Russia about a week ago and moved in with his friend. They spent the day inside for the most part so they were safe." She explained.

Kyoshi nodded as he took in all she said, "That's good."

"It is. If they stay out of trouble that means we have time to tackle your problems."

"You're lying on the bed yet you still look like you're seconds from falling over and that's a little hard when you're already lying down." Sakura pointed out to him, watching as he kept fading out.

"I just need an hour's sleep." Kyoshi told her quietly, lying back and shifting comfortably.

Sakura picked the blanket up off the ground and carefully placed it over him, "So get that hour of sleep that you need so you'll feel better." She got off the bed in a bit of a hurry, walking out into the hall and closing the curtains to keep the sun out. She glanced over at Kyoshi again, watching as he was close to falling asleep again. She smiled and left the hallway and walked into the living room and lying down on the sofa, thinking as a cigarette kept passing through her fingers.

**---With Kai and Tala--- **

Tala was at the computer, answering some emails he'd gotten from his ex-team mates in Russia. He'd decided he wasn't going to tell them about what was going on, or at least not until they knew more about what they were up against. At the same time Kai walked into the living room, ending a call that had lasted about ten minutes. "The club says that the band isn't planed to play there again for about another week so basically, we have no clue where they're going to be tonight."

"At least we know who they are now…" Tala told him, never taking his eyes off the screen.

"We do?" Kai asked, blinking confusedly.

"Yeah, I looked up the bar's list of bands and went through them all till I found the right one."

Kai walked up to Tala quickly, pulling a chair up beside him to sit at the computer with him, "How long did that take?" he asked hurriedly.

"Considering the bar is new and there are only five bands on their roster, not very long."

Kai smirked and looked at Tala with a bit of amusment in his eyes, "Since when did you get so good at this?"

Tala looked over at Kai, a smile on his face, "The Abbey was filled with computers, practice makes perfect I guess." He answered.

"The Abbey's turned you into a sneaky rat…" Kai told him, turning back to the computer screen, "Don't change that, it might come in handy again." He finished, making the younger blader laugh quietly.

"If I didn't know you any better I would have taken that as an insult." Tala told him.

"Don't think otherwise just yet." Kai joked. He hit him in the shoulder slightly with the back of his hand, prodding him to tell about what he'd discovered, "So what did you find?"

"Not much that we haven't figured out by ourselves so far." Tala opened the web page again for Kai to see, sitting back so Kai can move closer to see the screen. "But about the band, they're a group of four that started out with the current lead singer, Sakura, meeting an American drummer named Danny. They tried to put a band together which is the band they are now, Danny, Sakura, Kyoshi and James."

"Well the guy that Sakura is always with must be Kyoshi so doesn't say anything about them because right now they're our priority."

Tala nodded in agreement and spoke again, "That's where it gets strange. The whole band is said to be more…divided compared to most bands because they all go different ways. Danny and James are good friends and are the outspoken ones of the group and have no problem talking about their personal lives. Kyoshi on the other hand, never says a word at any interview they're at and pretty much the only time people hear his voice is during sound checks and back up for some songs. Then there's Sakura, her personality in the band isn't much of a surprise, she's the cold type that keeps her past and personal life to herself, some people aren't even sure if 'Sakura' is even her name anyway since a lot of information she's given before had turned out to be fake."

"That's taking privacy to a whole new level." Kai muttered under his breath. "So by her paranoid privacy and him being a mute, I'd take it that no body knows where in this country they actually live right?"

"Right now, they're not even sure they even live anywhere in this country. Fans know that since the band only plays in the area that it shouldn't be too hard to look for them but it's harder than they think it is."

Kai sighed and sat back, staring off into space, or rather the ceiling with some thought, "So how do we find them?" he asked him.

Tala turned to look at Kai, a little frustrated and spoke coldly, "I can't think of everything."

"Sorry." Kai muttered.

Tala laughed, "Can't believe you actually bought that, stupid." He hit Kai in the arm hard, as he couldn't help but smile because of Kai's stupidity.

"That's cold." Kai told him, hitting Tala upside the head as he stood up to leave the room.

Kai was just about to exit when Tala turned round in the chair and called after him, "Don't you want me to tell you how we could find them?" he asked.

"I thought you didn't know." Kai said, turning and crossing his arms and he leant against the wall.

Tala smirked, trying to leave it at that and not to laugh, "I never said that." He corrected.

Kai rolled his eyes, "I like the fact that you're taking it easy but this isn't the time to be acting like a witty kid." He said coldly, and the old grumpy Kai was back!

"Fine, then I'll find the two by myself."

"Don't be stupid, we're finding and grilling them together. With that girl after you I'm not stupid enough to leave you alone." Kai shouted.

"Then let's find them."

**---With Sakura and Kyoshi--- **

Sakura had remained on the sofa, the TV opposite her on but set to mute, the coffee table so close to her legs that they left a mark in her black jeans and papers were littering the table and their files covering the surrounding floor. She sighed, sorting out all the pages in different piles, all of different subjects yet all a mess. She picked up the lit cigarette from sitting on the ash tray, placing it to her lips and moving it there while both her hands tended to sorting out more pages. While looking down at one of the many files she began to hear staggering sounds, rapid and uneasy breathing coming from the other room.

She looked up, her grey eyes looking on with some disappointment in them as she continued staring through the white curtains, seeing the shadow of the shaking form the room held inside it. She hurriedly pulled the cigarette away from her mouth, dropping it into the ashtray and putting it out as she stood up quickly and jumped over all the files on the floor, "Not this again." She muttered angrily. She entered the bedroom in a hurry, sitting down beside Kyoshi's form, placing a hand on his waist while the other one went to hitting his face gently but a little roughly at the same time.

Kyoshi's form just seemed to continue trembling in his sleep, hissing as he felt the stinging of the hits on his face and the pressure put on his side. He slowly gasped for air in his sleep, trying endlessly for a breath of fresh air, a break from the reckless cold that his body suddenly endured and the painful tightening in his chest. Sakura moved her hand off his face, placing the other hand on the other side of his waist while slowly waiting for Kyoshi to wake up from the nightmare. He did after a few more minutes, shooting up quickly which almost knocked Sakura right off the bed if it weren't for her hold on him and her knowledge that that were to happen. He trembled forward, not being fully aware of what was happening, not even realizing that Sakura was there until she'd put her hands on his shoulders and held him away from her.

Kyoshi tugged at his arms, pulling the thin arms close to his body for some warmth and comfort. The cold continued to freeze at the base of his skin, causing goose bumps to appear on the skin. Fright and panic ran through his body and mind, his breathing slowly calming down as he was seconds away from collapsing into the girl's arms. "Sit up." Sakura ordered quietly.

And now, Kyoshi could hold back all his tears for not much longer, they began to sting his eyes and escape down his cheeks.

"Are you alright?" Sakura asked, her cold stature never leaving her as she looked at him as she normally would since the kindness and concern she was showing earlier had disappeared once he'd gotten up, without releasing how much more her words where hurting the boy.

The sandy-blonde haired boy nodded, "I'm fine," he said.

"You're crying." Sakura pointed out, and the little, barely audible affection in her voice forced another sob from between Kyoshi's lips.

"I'm terrified," Kyoshi admitted, Sakura obviously didn't miss the trust that had gone into that confession as she'd let the boy know she was listening when she increased a sensitive and kind hold onto the other's shoulders. "I'm absolutely terrified that I'm going to wake up in that prison and this will all have been a dream. I don't know if I could handle that, Saku."

"It's not a dream." Sakura whispered with an accompanying sigh. "I'm here, Kyoshi, I'm with you."

Kyoshi's breath was shaking constantly, trembling with every breath that he attempted to take in. "Cold…hurts." He muttered, just seconds away from that…

Sakura took a deep breath and shook her head a little, pulling her arms around Kyoshi and pulling him to bury his face in her shoulder, running her fingers through the long strands of hair at the back of his head. She tugged him closer to her body, letting her fingers roam over his bare shoulders, a hand then dragging the blanket over Kyoshi's back. "There's no need for this, stop it now." She ordered quietly, kissing the top of his head softly. Kyoshi didn't obey the order, only making Sakura hold on tighter and tighter till he was sure bruises where rising in places on his shoulders and back where she held him, "I'm serious, stop it." She repeated.

Kyoshi quickly pushed himself off of Sakura once he heard the second order, tugging at the blanket to warm himself up. It appeared as though his body could barely make up its mind on what it was feeling, one minute he was burning and the next minute he felt like he was in a freezer. He slowly began dragging back together every shred of a nerve to pull himself together and to stop the irritating fear that coursed through him.

Sakura got off the bed, looked down at the trembling boy and left the room quickly. Kyoshi took her departure quite badly, thinking that his weakness would have upset her and she was leaving him alone because of it. He held back all his emotions, trying his best to regain all his composure which worked after a few minutes. He looked up, a little shocked when he saw the dark-haired girl walk back into the room, her backpack and the first aid kit in her hand. She placed both objects on the ground by the bed, rummaging through her backpack for something, pulling out a small red vial of some importance to her. She looked down at it for a moment before handing it to Kyoshi, "You need this sooner than I thought. Drink it."

The boy stared on at the glass bottle, watching the red liquid inside with an unbelievable hunger. The monster in him almost took over but he was able to hold the vampiric monster back for long enough to ask, "Where'd you get that?"

Sakura continued to look down at it, moving it closer to him, "Where it's from doesn't matter, just drink up before…"

"Is it yours?" Kyoshi cut her off in a hurry.

Sakura raised her eyes to look at him, the usual coldness in them, "You said yourself you wouldn't be able to handle drinking blood by taking someone's life, now you're not so drink."

"That's why your arm is all bandaged up?"

Sakura sighed with an endless amount of frustration, obviously Kyoshi wasn't going to drink the blood or relax until she answered all his questions, "After keeping an eye on those kids for a few hours I went to the hospital, a friend owed me a favor for a while so I asked him to draw some of my blood. Just enough for you to feed off until you could go back to drinking other people's blood."

Kyoshi softened up slightly, tugging at the blankets even harder as he stared down at the bottle suddenly, "You didn't have to do that." He told her.

"But I feel like I did have to so get to drinking while I tend to you alright?" Sakura almost sounded like she was on the brink of pleading for him to listen to her and drink up the blood before he severely hurt himself. Kyoshi tried to smile and nodded numbly, taking the cold glass vial into his hand. The vial had just been in the fridge just before Sakura had dropped it into her backpack so the glass was freezing on the outside but Kyoshi didn't mind so much as his body slowly heated up.

Sakura watched for only a second as her friend sipped at the bottle of her blood, then taking the opportunity to pick up the first aid kit and move over to sit behind him. Her finger tips touched Kyoshi mid-back, slowly pressing down and moving her hands to different areas of his back and side. Like the night before, the same part on his side was being a problem to him as she could tell that the moment she touched the sensitive area he was about to choke on the blood he'd just sipped from the bottle. She smiled a little as she got up, left the room and walked down the hall, coming back with a cloth soaked in cold water. Sitting back down she placed a dry cloth on the bed underneath the swelling side, then placing the cold cloth over the skin.

Upon some examination you could tell there wasn't much of a problem with Kyoshi, physically at least. There was no sign of bruising, just very very mild swelling in some areas but nothing too serious but Sakura still wanted to be careful as she'd much preferred to be tending to the boy than to leave him in pain, even if there wasn't much she could do. She smiled slightly upon seeing him drink the blood so slowly, "You don't need to salvage it for so long, there's more of it." She told him.

"You know…if I turn on you now that it'd be your fault, right?" Kyoshi ignored her words and just spoke about what was on his mind at the time he was given the chance to.

Sakura returned back to her cold façade, checking under the cold cloth for a second while nodding, "I know."

Kyoshi took a deep breath, closing his eyes and rotating his neck and shoulders to release the tension in his sore muscles, "You have no idea…what danger you've put yourself in."

The girl's black hair waved in front of her face and eyes as she shook her head, "I have to disagree with you there. I knew what danger I was putting myself in a long time ago."

Kyoshi again ignored her words but just proceeded in finishing off the vial of crimson blood, thinking that as long as she still remembered the danger she was putting herself in by being anywhere near him then he was fine and she wouldn't be able to say that he never warned her. Although, by now he'd given up on trying to keep her out of his fights, out of his situations and out of his habits but she was stubborn and ruthless and she wasn't about to move or change her way of life unless it was entirely her choice rather than a given order from an over-protective friend.

"Once you're done with this…we should go and check on those kids." Kyoshi informed her.

"Once I'm done with this you're going to sleep." Sakura corrected him casually.

"I just got up." Kyoshi reminded her, turning his head to try to look back at her.

Sakura shrugged indifferently, lifting the cold cloth again and placing it on the nightstand, "Whether you just got up or not isn't the point, the point is that you aren't having a good couple of days and need sleep."

Her phone rang from her backpack, "Pass that for me would you?"

Kyoshi leaned forward and picked up the backpack, pulling the phone out of the front pocket and handing it to her as it continued to ring. "Who is it?" he asked her, watching as she looked at the person on the phone.

Sakura replied with, "The doorman." Just before she answered the caller, "What is it? Alright thanks, I'll be there soon." She hung up quickly, tossed her phone on the table and stood up.

"Saku…we don't have a doorman." Kyoshi stood up, looking at her strangely and blinking with confusion.

Sakura rolled her eyes and walked into the living room, pulling on a thin black long-sleeved jacket to hide the gun that she adjusted on the back of her jeans, "I'm well aware of that."

"So what doorman?" Kyoshi walked into the living room, pulling on a meager red tank top that covered the top half of his jeans properly, then pulling on a dark red shirt on top.

"Those brats live opposite a hotel, I know the doorman there and asked him to call me if he saw them leaving the apartment."

Kyoshi exhaled, opening the draw to a dressing table and pulling out his own gun. "You're a cold hearted bitch yet you amaze me because you still have so many friends." He spoke, sounding almost disappointed.

Sakura lit another cigarette, leaving it in her mouth while she fixed the laces of her trainers. Once she stood up again and pulled the cigarette from her mouth she walked over to the door, "This is strictly business, I wouldn't call them friends…rather associates." She walked out the door, Kyoshi running straight behind her.

**---With Kai and Tala--- **

"So you really think they'll show up just because we left the apartment?" Kai asked, leaning back against the wall, crossing his arms as always.

Tala look a little upset and probably annoyed with Kai's lack of trust in his plans, "Working under Boris' rule for so long you learn how these kinds of people think." He said.

"What makes you think that they'll show though? We haven't known them for very long to know what they'd do."

Tala leaned back against the wall, moving his head back and looking up at the starry night sky with anger slowly burning up, "They 'assured' us that Hana wouldn't come after us again but the girl isn't dead and she seemed pretty determined. Sakura was there when Hana first showed up, if Sakura thinks we're in any danger by being out here then she'll show up."

"You two plan on standing there all night or do you have some sort of plans?" Sakura called, walking down the street right up to Kai and Tala, Kyoshi following close behind her while he stared up at the beautiful sky with a longing to get off the ground.

The two beybladers pushed themselves off the stone wall and turned to look at the other two, fierce looks on both their faces, Tala muttering a quiet, "Told you they'd show up."

Kyoshi stopped looking at the sky and turned his attention back to the two stubborn bladers that stood in front of him, "It's risky leaving yourself out here, you're willing to risk your lives for some information that you don't need to know?" Kyoshi now returned to being the old careless and slightly more heartless one than the one that was usually seen when he was alone at home.

"We got attacked by something that isn't normal, it said it'd be back for Tala so that concerns us more than you think it does." Kai spoke coldly.

"If you keep asking for trouble you're going to get it." Sakura warned, snarling angrily at the two younger boys.

"Cool it." Kyoshi muttered rudely under his breath, Sakura hearing him clearly enough, causing her to visibly relax and cross her arms.

"Let's go somewhere more private." Sakura said suddenly, much calmer than she was a minute before.

"Upstairs in our apartment." Kai was just about to turn to the door to go inside but was stopped by Sakura speaking again.

Sakura stepped forward quickly and speaking before Tala followed Kai, "No."

"Can't we even agree on a place to argue?" Kai asked her angrily, not bothering to turn to her.

"She's right this time. All of us all together in somewhere like an apartment isn't a good idea in case Hana comes after us again." Kyoshi reasoned with him. The good thing about the large difference between Kyoshi and Sakura was that Sakura was one that was always argued with but Kyoshi was the one that when he spoke and agreed with Sakura, it was because she was actually right. He wasn't about to agree with her over a fight or to make things more difficult, he was going to do things his way.

"Then where do you suggest we go?" Tala asked them.

Sakura and Kyoshi looked each other, a cool and rather mischievous smirk appearing on Sakura's face as she watched Kyoshi's warning face then turned to the other two boys, the sadistic and playful smirk never leaving her face, "I love kids like you who act so tough." She told them.

* * *

Kai sat on the ground in a deserted alley, resting his arms on his knees, sighing and shaking his head, "We ask for a quiet place to talk and she drags us to the most dangerous part of the country." He said, staring on distantly.

"Guns go off as much as car alarms around here, no one's stupid enough to talk if they hear firearms going off." Sakura said, sitting down opposite Kai on the other end of the alley.

"You really have the weirdest way of living for a teenager." Tala told her, walking over to Kai and standing beside the sitting form.

"Let's cut to the chase, what is it you two want to know and if we tell you will you leave us alone?" Sakura asked, rudely as always, rubbing at her temples as she already felt a headache coming on.

"We're not guaranteeing anything!" Kai exclaimed.

"You two are constantly fighting, calm down would you?" Kyoshi interjected, standing in the middle of the large dark alley, looking from Sakura to Kai till he watched them both avoid the others gaze. "Good now let's answer their questions before something bad happens." He continued.

"So what do you want to know?" Sakura asked quietly.

"Who is she?" Kai asked her.

"She's a water demon who is more than slightly obsessed with gaining power."

Kai looked up at Tala, raising an eyebrow at him, "You really seem to have a knack for attracting people who want power don't you?"

Tala turned back to Sakura and Kyoshi, ignoring Kai's stupid yet true statement, "So why is she after me?" he asked them.

"You probably have a power that attracts her to you. That's why we've been saying that it's not something you can help or that you should take as a personal offence." Kyoshi answered him, giving a small warm smile of some kind of hope or support.

"So she plans on killing me?" Tala asked them.

"We've told you already that we're not going to let her get to you." Sakura reminded, an exhale escaping her lips with some despair.

Kai watched as his best friend sighed and arched his head back, resting it against the stone walls. He could tell that the red-head was obviously upset, not being able to catch a break and all, "How can you assure us of that?" he turned back to them and asked.

"We're dedicated in what we do. We haven't lost someone yet and we're not about to lose someone now." Sakura said, looking up at Kyoshi, watching as he stared longingly at Tala's pale neck, clearly holding himself back. Kyoshi moved his tongue to the side inside his mouth, biting down on it and turning his head away from the group, not even realizing the words that Sakura had spoken which she was sure would get some sort of bad reaction out of him.

"How can we help?"

"You can stay out of it!" Kyoshi growled, turning back to them in one swift neck movement.

Sakura visibly flinched painfully, then raising her head to look at Kai, "You have to trust us to look after you and destroy her."

"I don't want to be kept out of this."

"You'd be helping us and keeping yourself safer if you stay out of it as best you can. Coming after us is just going to get you and Kai hurt." Kyoshi continued, looking on at Tala with fierce eyes.

"We should all leave." Sakura said suddenly, pushing herself off the ground and standing over Kai, watching as he got up. "We'll speak about all this again some time soon."

Kyoshi agreed with her, walking up beside her and trying a small smile at the other two, "Yeah, maybe next time we meet we could all be more friends than enemies."

**A/N: A long, most likely very boring chapter. My reason for having this chapter so long is because I don't know when exactly I'll update again, probably next weekend like usual but I'm not sure since I have exams starting up soon. One thing I didn't mention last chapter was the song, the song that the band had played in the chapter was 'The Sharpest Lives' By My Chemical Romance. I'd forgotten to mention it sooner, sorry. **

**Please leave me a review telling me what you think of it so far. Take care everyone! **


	4. Their Own Friendships

_**Chapter 4**_

Kyoshi and Sakura had just ended the night dropping Kai and Tala off at their apartment, or so they had thought. Really and truly Kai and Tala were not too far behind, following the two band members down many streets in hopes on finding where they lived. Kyoshi had sensed the two following behind but he didn't say anything to the girl beside him, not minding much that the two were trying to find out where they lived., whereas he knew that Sakura would have one and would have tried to stop them, something Kyoshi didn't want.

Once they'd gotten into the apartment Kyoshi was first in his bedroom, lying back on the bed with his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling with a drained look in his eyes. Dark red circles were lining under his eyes, giving him an even more exhausted look then he was actually letting on. Sakura leaned by the wall in the doorway of his bedroom, waiting there for a moment, realizing that he wasn't taking any notice of her. When it sunk in that he wasn't up for talking she just pulled a blood red vial out of her pocket and tossed it onto the space beside Kyoshi on the bed, "Drink up." She ordered before she turned and left the room and moved back to sitting in the living room.

Kyoshi didn't move to look at the vial, he knew it was there and only needed to move a hand from under his head and bring it to his side to reach it. His fingers bitterly touched the cold glass and pulled it closer to him, looking down at it suddenly, watching the crimson red liquid swaying in the glass container. The sight of the blood was making him hungrier and hungrier by the second that passed, mili-seconds if you wanted that in the time that it felt like to a vampire watching blood. The boy sat up quickly, tugging at the cap of the bottle, taking a deep breath and gulping down the blood in one swift motion.

The coppery taste of blood lingered in his mouth for a while after, Kyoshi quite enjoying it, at the same time making him feel bad about that fact. His mouth remained slightly open, giving the drying blood a better taste as he took in deep breathes and enjoyed the taste of red liquid that remained in his mouth, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes for a second to enjoy it. He opened his eyes again once the taste had almost been drained completely but at least now he wasn't craving as much blood as he had been before. Slowly he moved his legs off the side of the bed and steadily stood up, taking a moment of standing there before walking into the living room where Sakura was.

The silent skinny girl sat on the sofa like she had earlier that day, fidgeting and sorting out all the papers that were still scattered all over the living room coffee table. Kyoshi sat down in the armchair, sitting forward with his arms resting on his knees as he held his head in his right hand and watched her move the papers about.

Sakura raised her eyes to look at Kyoshi, her hands continuing there movements with the papers, "Sorry about the mess, I'll be out of here in a minute." She told him, speeding up her progress of cleaning up her things from littering the living room.

Kyoshi sighed, sitting back, his elbows resting on the arm rest as one hand moved to rub his temples in exhaustion. A quiet groan escaped him, one Sakura had heard from where she sat.

Sakura had remained looking at him, then turning her eyes back to sliding her files into the shelf under the coffee table, "What is it?" she asked him, keeping her usual stone face as she continued to clean up without taking much more than a quick and sudden glance at Kyoshi once in a while till he answered.

"Nothing."

"I'm not stupid…you know that right?" Sakura asked him, sitting back and putting her feet up on the now clear table.

"You wouldn't understand." Kyoshi told her, sitting forward in an attempt to get up, being interrupted by Saku's answer.

"Try me." Came the confident words of the other teenager.

Kyoshi continued to hold his hand onto the arm of the sofa tightly, just as he'd been ready to stand up but hadn't. He stared at the ground for a moment, contemplating on whether or not he should talk about what was on his mind and what he would say. "Alright…well it started out a few years ago, there was this girl who really loved me and really I loved her back, more than she actually knew but she sensed I liked her. So when I kept denying it she wouldn't let me live it down and I admitted to my problems and we got together…but these days she's been acting strangely and she thinks that if she gives up enough blood for me, that it'll make me feel better but it doesn't, I just can't understand her, that's all." He explained, looking up to look at her once he was done.

Sakura slowly raised her eyes, locking eyes with Kyoshi, the two holding a silent lock for a few seconds before Sakura's face slowly softened up and she pushed herself off the sofa. She sat down on the end of the coffee table, resting her arms on her legs, her forearms being pressed against her stomach. "I haven't been treating you right these days…I'm aware of that but we're dealing with a lot right now." She spoke quietly, carefully yet the girl was incapable of just saying 'sorry' and getting it over with. Her ways of saying sorry and asking for forgiveness were usually long and uncomfortable.

"No, _we're _not. _I'm_ going through some things; you're making this whole Hana situation more difficult on yourself and on some innocent kids."

"The fact that you don't agree with my way of doing things is not my problem but I'm only trying to keep you and everyone else safe and it's worked so far." Sakura said, flames practically appearing in her eyes.

"Well a lot of good your ways have been doing me." Kyoshi shouted at her, standing up abruptly, pushing her and storming out of the living room and back into his bedroom.

Sakura closed her eyes quickly, sighing with some frustration, "I didn't mean it like that!" she shouted at him from there. After about two minutes of waiting for some form of a reply she still didn't get one and decided on getting up, taking some uneasy steps towards the bedroom. She walked up to the bed, Kyoshi lying on it and staring up at the ceiling with a sense of disappointment and sadness on his face to join the unearthly and sickly exhaustion. She knelt down on the ground beside, resting her arms on the leather bed and looking at him with an intense look on her face, "You shouldn't take this so hard. You won't even tell me everything about these dreams of yours, you can't expect me…"

"You can just forget about it." Kyoshi interrupted her coldly.

"I'm not about to just forget about anything, you know no matter how much time passes I don't forget about anything." Sakura lashed out at him, staring on in anger, "Now just relax, take it easy and don't fuss about this. Soon enough Hana will be gone and you and I can go back to the way we used to be."

Kyoshi rolled over onto his side to give his back towards her, lying on his arm, closing his eyes and exhaling quietly, "Sure." He replied.

Saku put a hand on his shoulder, leaving it there for a second before forcefully pushing him onto his back once more. She sat up onto the bed, running her thumb under his right eye and wiping off the slight moisture Kyoshi had tried to keep hidden from her. A trace of a smile appeared on her face, leaning forward and giving him a small kiss on the corner of his mouth as he continued to stare up at her. "Get some rest." She stood up, turning and quietly leaving the bedroom without another word of affection.

**---With Kai and Tala---**

Tala tossed uncomfortably in bed, huffing in realization that he was too flustered to sleep. The heat in his bedroom had begun burning his pale skin, making him more irritable by the second. He sat up quickly, getting out of bed and running to the window in practically one movement. He pushed open the window, breathing in some cool air that blew in silently. The heat made moving more unbearable, the heat gripping at his skin which caused him to slowly sweat. He turned and rested his bare back against the wall, taking deep breaths before sliding down the wall with exhaustion, "What are you doing over there?" a voice intruded on his peaceful and quiet thoughts.

Tala looked up hurriedly, making eye contact with Kai who kneeled down in front of him, "Ah…it's hot." He replied quietly.

Kai smirked down at his friend, picking up Tala's hand that had been pulled close to him, "It's better in the living room. C'mon." He tugged at his hand while he stood up, indicating Tala to go to the living room with him.

Tala slowly stood up again, letting go of Kai's hand once he'd caught his footing properly. He walked over to his bed, picked up his pillow and followed Kai back out into the living room, tossing the pillow onto the sofa before falling onto the sofa in exhaustion. The sweat on his forehead settled and he quietly enjoyed breathing in the cool air-conditioned air that filled the room, smiling slightly as he grew accustomed to the more comfortable temperature this room held.

Kai watched for a second, shaking his head and turning to the other sofa and lying down, making himself comfortable before hitting the switch and turning off the lights. "Tal…are you alright?" He asked, staring off in Tala's direction in the pure darkness.

The red-head turned onto his side, his hand under his head as he looked over at the little bit of illumination of the room that came from the moon that shone through the window, "Of course."

"You seemed really…upset when in the alley." Kai recollected on the moments in the alley with the other two mysterious teenagers, remembering each and every one of Tala's movements while there.

Tala seemed to have shrugged a little indifferently, "I was just getting tired…and it's all really confusing but it's sinking in now, I'll be fine in the morning."

"So…you're okay?" Kai asked carefully, turning onto his side too.

"Yeah…I said I'm fine. But Kai…" Tala started out quietly, then slowly building up the courage, "I'm really sorry for bringing you into this."

Kai smirked slightly at Tala's words, "That's the least of your worries right now." He told him.

"I don't care, I'm sorry I brought you into this, you don't deserve it."

"Night, Tala." Kai whispered, ignoring Tala's persistence of apologies.

Tala sighed, obviously frustration an emotion he'd been feeling a lot. He turned over onto his back again, staring at the ceiling in the darkness, "Good night." He whispered to the emptiness. He rubbed at the sleepiness in his eyes, closing them gently before slowly and steadily drifting off into a peaceful sleep. A rest that should keep him to handle the day that was to follow.

**---Next Afternoon---**

Kyoshi walked into the kitchen, glancing strangely at Sakura that sat at the table but shrugged it off and continued to walk over to the fridge, pulling out a beer and opening it up. He took a quick sip, looking over at the girl again, watching her with a furrowed eyebrow. "What's the matter?" He asked her, placing the still full beer bottle down.

The dark-haired girl continued sitting quietly, both hands on either side of her head covering her ears as she stared down at a blank wooden point on the table with a sickly look on her face, her arms covering up enough from the sides for him not to be able to see her face properly, "Nothing." She replied blankly.

Kyoshi shrugged and pulled the ice-tray out of the freezer, "Whatever you say." He said indifferently. He tried to take some ice out and put it in the glass but the ice was frozen solid to the plastic tray. He slammed the tray down against the counter in hopes of getting the ice out but a long with the crash he heard a loud whimper from the girl in the room. "What is it?" he asked her.

"Nothing." The girl answered again.

Kyoshi looked on at her suspiciously, at the same time flicking his tongue in his mouth before slowly turning back to the ice tray and slamming it down on the island counter. The crashing of the plastic against the stone created another loud crushing sound, the other sound of cracking ice sliding off the counter and falling to the floor was also heard, causing the girl to wince, whimper and hold on tighter to her head. The older blonde male took careful note of all this that was done and turned to her fully, "You're hung over again aren't you?" he asked her, smirking on finally catching the girl slipping again.

"No." Sakura answered rudely, her voice shaking just slightly, Kyoshi's senses being able to detect the slight tremor in her voice.

Kyoshi bit his tongue on the inside of his mouth, a habit he'd had for a long time, long before being turned into a vampire. He confidently picked up the beer bottle and walked over to her, placing the top of the bottle just under Sakura's nose to smell the scent of alcohol. Sakura quickly pushed the bottle away from her face, both hands clapping over her mouth as nausea made its way up her stomach, the horrible taste almost making its way up her throat. "Alright, Alright…" she called out defensively from under her hands. "I am, so what of it?"

"We agreed…less drinking."

"It's been a week." Sakura shouted, attempting to stand up.

Kyoshi quickly placed both hands on her shoulders to hold her up, "Why this time?" he asked her quickly, lowering his voice to make sure he wasn't severely harming the girl. Clearly you could tell that he was more careful with her than she ever was with him.

Sakura's eyes almost began rolling in the back of her head as she still wavered in his hold but still managed to answer him with firmness in her voice, "It wasn't intentional…I just had two bottles…" she replied.

Kyoshi looked at her strangely, curiously and confusedly, "Two bottles of what?" he asked her quickly.

Sakura shrugged Kyoshi off and turned to walk out the kitchen, leaning against the door way with one hand gripping the wood tightly, "Smirnoff black." She replied, continuing to stagger out of the kitchen.

Kyoshi gaped at her reply, holding onto the table quickly as he leaned over, staring over at her exit in a bit of shock, "She's got one hell of a death wish." He muttered, breathing out in anguish.

"I don't have a death wish." Sakura shouted from the living room, surprisingly hearing him from there despite how low his voice had been.

Kyoshi hurried into the living room, placing his hands on the back of an armchair as he looked on at the girl who was sitting down on the sofa, looking over at him with a small sense of innocence in her eyes, "Do you know what you're doing?" he asked her, "You're making yourself weak in front of me, making yourself vulnerable, do you know what I could do to you? I could take your life, drain your blood."

Sakura smirked at him, looking on at him, not being phased by all of Kyoshi's words, "You wouldn't dare, jerk." She told him, standing up and walking out of the room, feeling like her usual superior self, despite her current physical and mental state.

Kyoshi continued looking on after her, suddenly smirking when all she'd said had sunk in properly. He stood up straight, slowly, uneasily before walking quietly to the bathroom that was just beside Sakura's bedroom. He stepped inside, leaning back against the door opposite the mirror. Sakura stood in front of the mirror brushing her teeth, her left hand leaning against the sink as she brushed with her right. She looked up into the mirror, making eye contact with the boy that stood behind her, "What?" she asked him. The boy didn't answer her, just remained looking at her in the mirror with a small smile on his face, his eyes shining with some kind of spark not usually there. Sakura rolled her eyes at him, moving down to the sink to rinse her mouth and wipe her face off with a towel.

The girl turned round and attempted to leave the bathroom when Kyoshi grabbed her shoulder, pulling her back towards him so that her back could be pressed against his chest. She smirked, leaning her head back which stretched out her long pale neck, probably not the most intelligent move when in the arms of a vampire. Saku was far from one to care about what he'd do to her though. It wasn't that she had a 'death wish' as he'd put it so many times but in actual fact it was just that she'd put her lifetime's worth of trust in him and she'd learnt to refuse to herself to believe that he'd hurt her in any way, no matter how many times he warned her. Kyoshi lowered himself slightly so that his mouth could be just in line with Sakura's ear so he could whisper something that sounded more like a threat rather than the sweet words anyone would wish for him to say, "How many times?" he asked her.

Sakura's eyes closed slightly in a dramatic coldness, smirking suddenly before turning and pushing herself off of him. She looked up at him with the same amount of confidence in her eyes as she always had, seeming like nothing that the other said or warned her about would make her barrier break down. "Maybe when you actually draw that blood you've been talking so much about…I'll believe what you're actually capable of." The cold glare remained that way for another moment till she turned and finally left the room, unsteadily of course as her attitude still took a lot out of her state.

**---With Kai And Tala---**

Kai opened the apartment door and walked inside with a two bags of food in hand, placing them down on the coffee table which was opposite the sofa where Tala still lay sleeping soundly. He was regretting his following action, waking Tala up even though he didn't want to. He gripped Tala's shoulder tightly, shaking him till he woke up with a start, causing the red-haired Russian to look up at him with some confusion. "It's time to wake up." Kai answered the silent question, letting go of Tala and walking over to the other sofa he'd slept on earlier, sitting down comfortably.

Tala sighed and nodded, pushing himself up, wavering slightly at first before walking out of the room and to the bathroom. Kai sat there on the sofa, pulling on of the bags of food closer to him as he watched after Tala's exit. He shrugged it off slightly, pulling the burger and fries out of the bag while picking up the remote and putting on the TV. He nibbled at the chips while watching on curiously at the news, something a series of murders happening lately. He continued to eat, more like subconsciously as he was too engrossed in the news to even bother to where his hand was going to his plate.

A few minutes later and into the news that still continued with its interesting report, Tala walked back into the living room and sat down on the sofa. "What is it?" Tala asked Kai.

"A lot of murders happening in that area we were in yesterday." Kai replied, picking up the other bag and handing it over to Tala, "I brought lunch."

"I'm not hungry." Tala told him, pushing the bag off of him and onto the table.

Kai suddenly ignored the TV, turning fully towards Tala to look at him properly, "Since when?" he asked him, raising an eyebrow at the younger boy with suspicion.

Tala shrugged and just looked at him blankly and replied, "I'm just not hungry."

"Then put the food in the fridge and eat later but don't you dare pass out, you'll never hear the end of it from me if you do." Kai said coldly, feeling a little concern for his best friend as he turned back to the TV but just chose to ignore it, hoping the uneasy concern would just disappear.

Tala nodded, smiling inwardly, thankful for Kai's understanding but obviously not telling Kai so. He stood up quickly, picking up the bag of food and taking it with him to the kitchen and putting it in the fridge. Feeling rather drawn, he walked over to the sink, putting on the cold water and running his hands under it, wiping a bit of the cool water on his face to rid him of the stinging heat. On the surface of the shining water of the silver sink a face seemed to have emerged on the waters surface, a face that scared him and made him draw back away. The image in the water smirked evilly and closed her eyes, slowly disappearing a moment later which caused Tala to lean against the wall with a sigh of relief escaping him.

"Tal…what is it?" Kai asked, standing in the door way just beside Tala, scaring the other boy at first.

Tala shook his head slightly, trying to clear his thoughts before getting off the wall and turning to walk past Kai. "Nothing." He replied.

Kai gripped onto Tala's shoulder just before he left, pulling Tala back and setting him in front of him, "Did you see her again?" he questioned.

Tala shrugged and continued to walk past him, "Just her face in the sink, that's all." He answered him. Tala could still feel Kai's glare against his back as he continued to walk and entered his bedroom, the glare ceasing when he closed the door behind him. The teenager lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling for a few minutes with many thoughts about the female demon running through his head, along with his upset thoughts of Kai being involved.

He didn't hate Kai or anything of the sort but he just wished that at the time Kai wasn't around. He really didn't want the older teenager to get hurt because of some dangerous girl that was after him. He worried for the other teenager, just like Kai worried about him ever since he'd left the abbey. It all frightened him. Boris had finally been sent to prison, if not killed; Tala was free but was in the hospital because he kept losing consciousness. It all turned out to be that any magnetic in his body that Boris had had implanted had begun to malfunction and mess with his nerves. Everything was sorted out after about another week and a half of being stuck in hospital and while there he had been an emotional wreck considering that years of torment that had been cauterized where now unleashed to actually affect him.

With so much going on with him Tala had decided that it would have been better for him, and maybe even for everyone else if he just disappeared but since actually disappearing wasn't an option he opted to going to Japan to live with Kai for a while. Now, when it came down to all that was happening, he regretted the decision of moving in with Kai. The two of them were best friends when they were younger, they grew up away from each other but when they met again they remembered that friendship…the last thing Tala wanted was to lose Kai…to anything, especially some supernatural being. Most of all he didn't want Kai getting hurt just because Kai was overprotective of him. The last thing he wanted was to be cared for in ways that made him feel helpless…not at the risk of losing his best friend.

A part of him really wanted to leave…or at least go outside on the streets but it was dangerous. He didn't care that it was dangerous for himself, he cared because he knew that if he left Kai would follow and wherever Tala was there was danger to accompany him and he wasn't ready to inflict such a thing on his friend. It was bad enough that Hana was after him even while he was at home. So for a while longer, he was stuck inside until he thought it was safe enough to go outside, or at least until he got too fed up to stay inside any longer which probably wasn't too far along.

At the moment he wasn't even sure about the way he should be feeling. Emotions where something he rarely felt while under Boris' rule so sometimes he found he couldn't even decipher his own feelings. He didn't know whether he should be scared for his own life, scared for his friends, whether he should be trusting the two strangers to keep Hana away from him. Was he supposed to be afraid to fall asleep? Eat? Drink? Go outside? He didn't know any of it; he turned out to be a total blank with his emotions, not being sure how he should feel about what was going on with him. He was just hoping so much that it was all some sort of dream, a nightmare that he'd wake up from soon. It evidently wasn't like that though and it was all real enough, the real world where anything and everything was possible.

**---With Kyoshi and Sakura---**

Sakura walked out of her bedroom, her hair brush in hand as she brushed through the short black wet bangs that stuck to her face. She entered the living room, tossing her brush on the coffee table as her eyes remained fixed on the form of the sleeping teenager in the armchair. She smiled, very very softly, one that was hardly noticeable, only noticeable to those that actually knew who she was and the way she acted. The girl sat on the corner of the table, her arms on her knees as she looked closely at him as he slept soundly. She sighed, almost one that couldn't be heard, "To wake you…or not to wake you." She whispered to herself. Carefully, slowly and awkwardly she moved her hand out to reach him, using two fingers to gently brush away a strand of blonde hair out of his eyes. She sighed again, just a little louder this time, "Things haven't changed as much as you think." She whispered to him.

_**---Flashback---**_

_Six year old Sakura sat outside on the orphanage's porch, watching the rain come down from the dark and cloudy sky. She smiled happily, staring up at the sky, enjoying the cool water that fell on her legs that had been stretched across the grass. On the other hand, she could see two men in the shadows across the street in an alley, both watching her strangely. One with some regret, the other with some anger. Even with this though, it didn't seem to hinder her happiness much. _

"_She's just sitting there…you're starving and she's vulnerable, what better reason do you need to go get her?" One of the males told the other in regards to the sitting Sakura. _

"_She's a little kid." Kyoshi said through gritted teeth, sliding down the wall and staring off to the side at the sky._

"_Did I mention that you're starving?" The first male asked._

"_Yes…but I'll manage." Kyoshi said stubbornly, wiping some hair out of his face. _

_The taller and older male just shrugged unsympathetically, "Whatever. I'm going to go for a while for my dinner. In half an hour the body will start to decompose and we all know that won't taste very good." He said._

"_Enjoy it, brother." Kyoshi waved his hand, giving his brother the back of his hand as a sign for the other to leave._

"_I will but I still think you should re-consider that girl…she looks good."_

_Kyoshi nodded in some agreement, then watching as the other male walked out of the alley and left him all alone there to contemplate on what to do for his next meal. He continued to look at the girl, a look of sadness in his eyes as he watched her with a weakness up until light started shining in painfully through his eyes. He hissed and moved backwards slightly more into the alley to keep himself shielded from the sunlight that had began to peep out from under the clouds as the rain slowly began to stop with it._

_Finally the heat grew strong for him, the weakness from lack of blood caught up to him and he fell over onto his side, his back against the wall as he pulled his arms closer to his body. From across the street Sakura had seen the man disappear from the little light that illuminated the streets. She stood up on the porch, looking on sadly at the now what appeared to be empty alley with a look of sadness in her eyes as she tilted her head to the side a bit. She turned and watched for any cars, then turning back to the orphanage, realizing no one was watching and no cars where passing she made one quick brake and ran across the street. _

_She slowly and quietly walked closer down the small alley, looking on a little fearfully when seeing the boy lying there so weakly. She stepped a little closer to the body, looking on with a bit of concern in her eyes along with some fear, "Nanitenda?" she asked quietly for him to hear her, which he did but didn't react to. "Doiste no?" she asked this time. She still didn't get any form of an answer and she decided to step a little closer, kneeling down in front of the lifeless body, "Daijobu?" she asked a little louder. A thought then came across in her mind, even though the boy was Japanese, or at least appeared to be, she thought that maybe he didn't speak Japanese, "Egao?" she asked carefully. _

"_Leave me alone." The form growled at her through a harsh and pained wince. _

_Sakura stood up quickly and backed away upon hearing the voice, cold but weak and gentle at the same time, one that couldn't be described properly, "Are…you okay?" she whispered._

"_Leave…please." Kyoshi shouted at her._

_Sakura walked over to him, placing a careful hand on his shoulder as a form of comfort only to have it pushed off again. "What's wrong with you?" she asked him._

_The Sun came out completely from under the clouds and the sunlight shone suddenly on Kyoshi's right arm, burning the skin so much that smoke began erupting from the area. Kyoshi groaned at the pain as the fire built up on his skin until he was dragged out of the sunlight to the very back of the alley where there was seldom any light reaching it. _

_Sakura's waist long hair trailed behind her as she ran across the street and back into the orphanage home, running back out five minutes later with a cold cloth and a blanket she'd pulled off of her bed. She reached the back of the alley and she just stood there in the light for a minute, watching as he tried hard to push himself up into a sitting position. She walked closer to him, kneeling beside him and placing the object she'd brought with her on her lap. She looked over at him, looking at the burn closely before placing the cold cloth against it. _

_Kyoshi hissed louder, forcing himself harder up against the wall when the cold water entered the burn, some tears entering his eyes at the same time. "You should go." _

"_You're really hurt." Sakura stated, tears streaming down her face as she let go of the cloth that her shaking hand had held. She passed him the cloth and stood up, looking down at him with a great sadness, concern and terror in her grey eyes. She watched as the male slowly stood up, looking down at her with a small sign of…gratefulness? The older boy, the teenage boy pulled the dark blue coat's hood over his head and tugged down the sleeves to defend himself from all the sunlight. He walked out into the light without saying anything else to the girl and before the girl knew it, he was running down the street with an amazing speed and disappeared from the area._

_**---End Flashback---**_

Sakura continued to look on sadly at her band-mate, her best friend, her lover. She slowly moved her hand to stroke his cheek with the back of her fingers, smiling honestly at him, she tended to smile more when no one was watching her do it. Something she preferred rather than showing everyone how she felt. She sighed quietly, moving herself a little more off the table so she could be closer to him, "That time I tried my best to help but…that didn't come close to what our friendship turned out to be like. Nothing close to what happened later."

_**---Flashback---**_

_The raven-haired orphan stared out the window, sadness still twinkling in her eyes as she looked out for any sign of movement under the slowly darkening sky. It had been two days since her encounter with the teenager in the alley and ever since then she looked out for him in hopes that she'd see him again so that she'd know for certain that he was alive and out there._

_She'd just caught sight of a figure in the alley, then another figure leaving the alley quickly. She ran down the stairs and out onto the street, being careful not to be seen by anyone before she ran across the street and stood at the end of the alley where she couldn't be seen. She listened for any sounds, hearing nothing but a light breeze that echoed against the stone walls. She stepped inside and walked as far as she could to the end of the alley way. _

_She gaped slightly, watching as a shot man lay dieing on the ground, the most shocking part was the man that drank the blood from the neck of the dieing victim. The man continued to suck the blood from the dieing, being too engrossed in his feeding time that he hadn't sensed the person that stood over him watching. Once the man was dead and he'd been satisfied with the day's feed he looked up, blood dripping from his mouth as he stared on a little shyly and awkwardly at the girl who watched. He groaned quietly, looking down at the dead body in his arms for a second before looking back up at her. "Aren't you…afraid of me?" he asked her quietly, letting go of the body and standing up. _

_Sakura took a tiny step back, being taken aback by the man's sudden height on her. She shook her head strongly though, her dark black wavy bangs falling in front of her face as she smiled on at him, "Why should I be?" she asked him._

_**---End Flashback---**_

"So…if you think about it enough…we haven't changed all too much have we? We're still the same way we were back then…it's not going to change. Time goes on but my personality and feelings won't change." Sakura looked on with that small smile of hers before she stood up, giving the pale cheek one more quick stroke before leaving the living room again.

**---With Kai and Tala---**

Kai quietly opened Tala's bedroom door, peeking inside the room to look for the younger boy. He saw the Russian captain lying on the bottom of the double bed, fast asleep on his arm, looking like a drained and exhausted child. Seeing him like that worried him a little, even annoyed him as Tala had slept for a long time the night before and all through the morning, he shouldn't be sleeping anymore, "This can't be right. How could he possibly be tired?" he whispered to himself. He sat down on the bed, keeping a close eye on his friend. Ever since Tala showed up in his life again he couldn't help but worry about him all the time, he figured it was just something that would pass but it hadn't so far, the worry grew stronger now with all that was going on.

He put his hand on Tala's shoulder, gently shaking him awake while calling his name quietly and telling him to get up. Tala had heard him clearly enough and turned onto his back, staring up at Kai with a drowsy and spacey look on his face. "What?" he whispered hoarsely.

"You've slept enough. It's time to wake up." Kai said coldly, standing up in front of Tala.

Tala sat up, a hand by his side to keep himself steady as he wiped the tiredness out of his eyes. He groaned out, feeling too tired to say anything beside a quiet, "Sorry." Towards his friend.

"Hana is finally getting to you?" Kai asked him, leaning back against the wardrobe in front of Tala, watching him carefully.

Tala smirked lightly, resisting the urge to laugh, "I highly doubt she's making me tired and intends on killing me in my sleep."

Kai didn't seem amused by Tala's words though and continued to look on blankly at the teenager, "You know that's not what I mean." Came his icy tone.

Tala nodded, staring at the ground and contemplating a little before deciding to speak, "Change is exhausting."

Kai looked on at him, nodding just barely with agreement to his statement, "I know but coming from someone who hates change, I have to say that sometimes change is good."

"I know it is…I just didn't expect anything to end up like this."

Kai smirked and pushed himself off the wardrobe, "Trust me, neither one of us expected someone to be after you again."

"If she's been after me for a long time now, she's done a really good job of hiding herself up until now."

"And she won't be after you for much longer."

The red-head looked up at Kai suddenly, looking on a little questioningly, "You believe that those two could get rid of her?"

The bluenette gave a civil nod and sat down beside Tala, staring at the ground in some thought. He continued to run over some of the past events in his mind, the meeting of Sakura and Kyoshi and their confrontation in the alley. "I'll be the first to admit, I don't really trust them but I do trust them enough to think that this 'job' they've been doing, they've been doing it well and I can tell…because they're determined."

The red-head looked over at Kai, attempting a small smile on his face, "You always thought that determination made a difference."

Kai closed his eyes, smiling too at the words from his friend, "And now we can watch it happening." Tala was pulled up off the bed by Kai before he even had a chance to reply, "Go eat so we can go out a little." He ordered, pushing Tala towards the door.

Tala groaned, exhaling with some annoyance but a smile on his face, "Even when my life is at risk you still want me to go out." He commented loudly.

"Of course." Kai said, walking outside the room with Tala and setting himself in the living room.

**A/N: Exams are in a few weeks so chapters are getting a little shorter and maybe even a little sloppy, sorry for that. I hope that this chapter had even a little bit of good writing in it. Please leave a review and tell me what you think of the chapter and I'll try have another chapter up as soon as I can. **


	5. Gunshots

_**Chapter 5**_

Sakura lay exhaustedly on her bed, partly on her side with her arm stretched across the white linen streets, gripping the corner of the mattress, breathing at a slow and rhythmic pace. Soon enough a form crept up behind her, lying behind her and placing his hand around her waist. He lay there for a moment before sitting up slightly to look at Sakura, who was well aware of his presence. He kept an eye on her face, her eyes still not opening to look at him but he decided to speak anyway, "Thanks." He whispered shyly.

Sakura still didn't open her eyes, giving herself a few more quiet seconds of peace before replying, "For what?" she asked him, bored and rather uninterestedly.

Kyoshi pulled Sakura a little closer to him, speaking quietly to her again, "For the reassurance earlier."

Sakura smirked, turning onto her back to be able to look up at him properly, "You were meant to be asleep, I didn't think you could hear me talking."

"I've been a shallow sleeper these past few weeks." Kyoshi shrugged slightly, smiling down at her.

The dark-haired girl's expression went serious suddenly, looking up at him with some regret and sorrow in her eyes, "I didn't know that." With her words, something else could be seen in her eyes, the sight of something that showed him it was her way of telling him sorry for not knowing since she wouldn't say it herself.

Kyoshi smiled down at her but shook his head, "You weren't supposed to know."

"If I were around and listened to you more, then I would have known better."

"Maybe so but I don't mind, you know? Don't worry about any of it." Kyoshi shrugged again unresponsively, looking like nothing affected him.

Sakura huffed quietly and turned back onto her side, closing her eyes again quickly, "You know me…I don't worry much."

Kyoshi nodded slightly, sighing and lying down properly beside the girl, "I guess you're right." He whispered softly, different to the way he'd been speaking earlier, in a different tone at least.

"What is it?" Sakura asked, looking back at him again.

"What?"

Sakura turned over completely, sitting up slightly to loom over him, "Something changed. What's wrong?" she asked quietly.

Kyoshi sat up slightly on his side, a hand moving carefully to her face and stroking her cheek with his thumb, smiling caringly before giving her a quick kiss. "You're getting paranoid." He whispered, smirking at her with some satisfaction.

Sakura moved her head away quickly, pushing his hand off of her, "I am not."

"You sure?" Kyoshi asked, his smirk not ceasing and not being affected by the action.

Sakura huffed and turned away from him, getting off the bed, "Of course." She replied confidently.

Kyoshi crawled to that side of the bed and standing up just behind her, both his hands on her shoulders as he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, "Stubborn." He whispered in between another kiss.

Sakura pulled away from him slowly, turning and walking past him and calling to him as she reached the door, "Come on, we're going out."

**---An Hour Later- On the Streets---**

Sakura buried her hands in her jeans pockets, turning back to Kyoshi and looking up at him, "So we'll meet back here in about an hour, don't forget." She stated casually.

"I won't. See you later." Kyoshi turned quickly and attempted to walk away down the dark streets.

"Hey, wait a second; don't be so quick to leave." Sakura called after him, making him turn round and walk back to her.

"I need to enjoy the night." Kyoshi commented under his breath, standing right in front of the girl.

Sakura glared up at him before sliding something out of her back pocket, a paper with a photo of a young male Asian attached to it. "Here, you might need this." She handed the paper to him and walked off before he had the chance to look up from the paper and reply to her. She made her way down the crowded, dimly lit streets of Japan, her eyes continuously cast on the ground in front of her as she walked on, one place of meeting in mind. Little knows littered the streets, or that was as much as she could here. She tended to zone out completely when it suited her to and that made her block out any thing that was going on around her. People in the area where polite towards her, none took any regard towards her cold-hearted and tough stature and just walked past her without saying anything against her which she had grown to be used to.

She stepped in a small puddle of water on her way into an alley, the water probably coming from the water pipe that had been used to water some of the plants on the end of the street that had been seriously drying up because of the heat wave. She peeked inside the dark, looking around through with some of the illumination that fell off the walls. No one and nothing was in there worth looking for and she left it soon enough, walking on for longer till she found another alley, one looking worse off than the other one actually did. She walked inside quietly, being more sure something was there rather than in the other alley when she was unable to sense any living being. She walked to the back of the abandoned corner and knelt down in front of a few crumpled up blankets in a corner.

She slowly touched the top of one of the blankets; her thin fingers carefully curled along the hem and even slower pulled the covers down, not being surprised by the sight of the dirty and skinny child underneath it. Almost acting as though the sight wasn't one of anything that was new to her.

"You're here again…Obviously you haven't found a better place to stay yet." She whispered quietly to the girl's unconscious form. She wasn't expecting any answer from the girl of course, speaking more rhetorically than anything else. She slowly slid the cover down lower, putting her two fingers in the girl's jeans pocket, feeling it to be empty. "At least you've bought yourself something to eat, you've managed well." She continued to whisper. She put her hand on the girl's head, running her fingers through the girl's knotty and dirty blonde hair, "It'll be ok, don't worry." She pulled her wallet out of her back pocket, rummaging through it before pulling out quite a large sum of money and slotting it in the girl's pocket.

Sakura tried to force a small smile on her face, even though the orphaned girl wasn't much of a smiling matter. She picked the girl up just slightly from the ground to be able to fix the number of blankets she was wrapped in. She was careful and gentle…more than she was with herself or Kyoshi as when here she was actually scared of harming the girl more, what with weak bones and fragile skin and all. She covered the girl up again completely, wished her a silent good night and left the alley in hopes of not being seen by anyone.

Her shabbily cut black hair swayed slightly in front of her face with the light summer breeze that brushed past her constantly as she leisurely made her way back to her meeting place with Kyoshi to wait for him there even if she was still about half an hour early. She arrived at the spot in half the time it took her to get to the girl but her ears twitched slightly at a sound that seemed familiar to her, making her raise her eyes from staring at the ground and look around. She pushed herself off the dirty stone walls and walked hurriedly in the opposite direction from where she'd came from, the direction Kyoshi had gone. She arrived in front of a small building, a grocery store on the outside but most definitely something else on the inside.

She sighed shaking her head, her eyes almost rolling at the same time as she walked calmly to the side of the building. She looked up to the top at the roof where she could have sworn Kyoshi was. Looking around the corner she saw a bunch of boxes pilled up over an old, clearly unused trashcan and decided to use that to give herself a boost up onto the building. She stood on it with great agility and balance but not taking things lightly as she'd decided to hold onto the stone wall before slowly climbing her way up to the top. It wasn't before long that she arrived there as clearly already been said, it was a small building, not one very high. She sighed quietly once she reached to the top, sitting down on the ledge, facing Kyoshi's direction.

Two dead body's lay sprawled on the ground, one of which was currently in Kyoshi's arms while he tended to the tanned neck of the man that was on the picture Sakura had given him. She continued to sit there with some interest on her features, watching as Kyoshi enjoyed his first meal in ages. His feeding time wasn't of anything new to her either, just about now you could say she'd seen it all really but still, watching him feeding was still something she didn't see often as he'd been starving himself constantly and rarely had she been quick enough to catch up to him in time to watch it. On the other hand, she really wasn't about to interrupt feeding time. Disturbing a vampires feeding time was…unheard of to say the least as no one would like to be on the other end of a vampires deadly bite, including Sakura.

It wasn't too long till Kyoshi had finished draining the blood of one victim, then slowly moving on to the other one. Kyoshi's large appetite almost disgusting Sakura completely, still making her turn her head away from him and stare off the ledge to the streets below them. She was getting a little impatient but refused to say anything at the time since in actual fact, she had given him just over an hour before they were meant to meet again and so she was early and didn't have the right to stop anything. Soon enough she turned back to Kyoshi, watching him stand up and kick the body over so that the corpse would lie on its stomach.

Some blonde hair fell in front of Kyoshi's face from keeping his head lowered for so long so it tended to remain that way till he brushed it away, revealing the slight coldness on his face along with the crimson liquid dripping from the corners of his mouth. Sakura stood up as he walked up to her, her arms still crossed as she looked on at him passively while speaking, "Satisfied?" she asked.

Kyoshi nodded curtly, tugging his shirt's sleeve down and wiping at his mouth, "Very." He replied.

"Excellent. Now let's get out of here before we get into some sort of trouble." Sakura turned back to the ledge, stood on it and peered over at the ground beneath her.

Kyoshi smirked and stood beside her on the ledge, "Right, like we could get into trouble." He muttered.

Sakura turned to him sharply, glaring coldly, "Just shut up and get me down from here, okay?"

The blonde smirked slightly, stepping carefully behind her and placing both hands on her shoulders to keep her from falling off such a narrow edge of stone. "Stop being so grumpy." He whispered in her ear, a constant smirk playing at his lips.

"Just get me down." Sakura barked, turning her head to the side in furiousness.

The older male shook his head discreetly and tightened his grip on one of her shoulders and letting go of the other, moving her forward slightly so she peered over the edge more, leaning over with her only form of safety being his grip on her. "What should you say?" he asked.

Sakura grit her teeth, turning away from looking below, "I should say that if you don't get me safely on the ground you'll regret your immortality." She bit out angrily.

"And?"

Sakura turned her head to look straight again, looking down, "I hate you." She muttered angrily, savagely and quickly lifting her hand and brushing off Kyoshi's hold on her to let her fall. Even though the fall was a short distance, for someone who was afraid of heights it was too long a distance but the fright of it only gave her more determination and she landed perfectly on her knees, one hand in front of her to hold herself up. She sensed Kyoshi arrive on the ground beside her, floating down like a regular vampire with stealth. He stood, walking slowly in front of her as she rose. "Did you know that mother birds threw their young out of the nest to teach them how to fly?" he asked her.

Sakura gave some sort of a smirk as a reply before lunging forward and kneeing him hard at his centre, standing back and watching as he dubbed over in utmost pain. "Did you know that when a guy get's on a girl's nerves that's usually the first place she aims for?" she asked rhetorically.

"That was uncalled for."

"That's just a taste of what will happen if you dare try a stunt like that again." Sakura growled, turning and walking off in a hurry.

Kyoshi stood up straight, wincing slightly before dubbing over again, "Man that hurt." He muttered, breathing deeply. He gave himself one more minute before he knew most of the pain had disintegrated and decided to run after her in hopes of catching up.

**---At The House- 00:00---**

Sakura was just about to enter her bedroom when from the room beside her out came Kyoshi, reaching out to her and wrapping one arm around her waist to keep her from moving away further. The pale-skinned girl slowly turned round, looking up at him with a blankness but a bit of questioning in her eyes at the same time. Kyoshi's face was inches away from hers as he slowly intended to close the gap but all he was met with was her hand against his face, her fingers parted enough so he could look through them.

A small smirk was suddenly put on Sakura's face as she stared up into his confused eyes and began to reply, "If you think that you're going to kiss me with a mouth that has just sucked up the blood of two men, you're sorely mistaken my friend."

Kyoshi backed off, stepping away and looking at her a little disappointedly as he watched her walk off into her bedroom.

**---With Kai and Tala---**

Kai sat back on the sofa, watching as Tala walked from one side of the room to the other constantly to look out of the window. A cup of strong coffee was gripped tightly in his hands as he paced, on the occasion of taking sips while staring outside into the dark. "Is this how you're going to spend your whole night?" Kai asked him, raising an eyebrow as he watched the red-head intently.

Tala walked up to the window yet again, drawing back the curtain lightly with his hand to look out. He exhaled quietly, letting go of the curtain and turning back to Kai, "Maybe." He answered.

Kai sighed and looked up at his friend, "That wasn't the answer I was hoping for." He told him.

"Well we can't all have what we want now can we?" Tala asked him, glaring coldly at the older blader with some spitefulness in his voice.

Kai shrugged, sitting forward and pushing himself up off the sofa, "I don't know what you plan on doing all night but I'm going to sleep." He said, walking past Tala and to his bedroom, "Good night." He shut the door quietly behind him, leaving the red head alone in the lightly-illuminated living room. The boy was quite…puzzled being the right word to call it. Things were moving slowly, slower than expected. One thing he was taught to do as a child was to analyze everything that went on. Now he was being chased by something he didn't even have time to analyze, something dangerous that could attack at any moment.

At the time he wasn't in any immediate danger though, Sakura had left a note on their door while they were out that Hana was going to be somewhat distracted for a while and shouldn't even attempting to hurt him. She was right though, Tala gave her that much as he hadn't seen a glimpse of the water demon for hours which he was not complaining about. All he needed now was just something to take his mind off of things that could and probably were going to happen sometime in the near future. He set his mug down on the desk, glancing over at the window one more time before sitting down at the computer in hopes of distracting himself.

One subject had entered his mind to look up; some random feeling he got that drew him closer to the idea. So still being bored, he rested his elbow on the desk, placing his head in his hand as his other hand moved the mouse so the curser did the same on the screen.

**---Next Morning---**

6:00am and Kai quietly stepped out of his bedroom, staring at the ground up until he closed his bedroom door behind him, then looked up at Tala at the computer, "Have you been there all night?" Kai asked quickly, astonishment in his voice.

Tala almost jumped as he hadn't heard Kai creep in through the door at the back of the room. He slowly turned to be able to look at his friend, no sign of fright evident on his face, "Of course not." He replied monotonously.

"Good." Kai commented, walking into the kitchen.

The younger Biovolt blader turned back to the computer, busying himself as he spoke loudly to the other, "What are you doing up so early?"

Kai called back from the kitchen while making himself a cup of coffee, "I'm always up at this time, remember?"

"You were like that in the Abbey…why didn't you ever change once you were out?"

Kai paused for a moment, staring down at the coffee mug on the counter, a slightly surprised look on his features, "I guess I didn't feel the need to. Why?" he asked curiously, returning to pouring out the water into the mug.

Tala shrugged unconcernedly from his place at the computer, answering calmly, "Just asking that's all."

The older blader in the kitchen wished he could shrug it off but something in him disallowed him to, although his will helping him enough for him to remain silent about it. He picked up his coffee and walked back out into the living room, having a much better view of his friend as he sat down on the sofa, sipping the coffee while raising his eyes to keep an eye on the boy. Tala confused him a lot these days; it seemed as though he was always doing something that Kai couldn't quite understand. Despite his curiosity, he had refused to ask about most of it, just expecting it to be a way of which Tala dealt with the outcome of his life. "What have you been doing over there?" he asked casually, pretending he wasn't too interested.

"I got bored and did some research." Tala replied, returning to holding his head in his hand.

"On?"

"These two are musicians aren't they?"

"Yeah, so you looked up musicians?" Kai asked, his eyebrows furrowing, giving him a more confused expression.

"Yeah, surprisingly there were these two that really looked like Kyoshi and Sakura…obviously they weren't though because the two singers are dead apparently."

Kai smirked, continuing to look at his friend with some amusement on his face, "We need to get you a life." He told him.

Tala couldn't help but smile a little at the other's comment, almost expecting Kai to have said that to him, "Probably." He stated.

The older blunette placed his empty mug on the coffee table, shifting on the sofa to lie down, looking in Tala's direction, "Maybe…we should go after those two again today." He told Tala quietly, calmly and casually as always.

Tala turned his chair so he could look at Kai, looking at him blankly, "They don't have to look after me." He said coldly.

Kai shrugged a little, locking eyes with Tala in a blank stare, "They see it as their job though." He reminded.

The red head ran a hand through his blood red hair, turning away from Kai again, facing the computer again but staring at it with blank interest in his eyes, "It's no ones job to look after me. There is no such job."

Kai put his hands by his sides carefully and pushed himself up slightly to sit, "That doesn't seem to be what they think at the moment." He commented coldly.

"Since when have you cared about what other people think?!" Tala shot at him angrily.

"I care a lot when it's a friend's life at stake here."

Tala calmly continued staring into the lights of the computer, not taking in anything that was on the screen through his blurred vision. He slowly factored in all that Kai had said but in his mind he didn't have any of it, he felt like he couldn't believe it, "You said you didn't have friends." He told him, his body not moving an inch from its place.

"Tal…" Kai said, a rather annoyed hint to his features and voice.

Tala turned in his chair again to look over at Kai, exhaling into the heat of the room before getting up and walking over to his ex-team mate, sitting beside him on the sofa. He gripped his friends shoulders in his hands, not realizing the pressure he was putting, but still clearly Kai hadn't been hurt by it, "Stop being overprotective." He whispered in a scowl.

Kai abruptly waved off Tala's hands off of him, looking down at him with some anger in his eyes, "It's a flaw but if you ask me there's a lot to worry about." He glared angrily at the boy.

**---Later That Day---**

"I thought I'd told you two to run." Kyoshi whispered, pulling Kai and Tala behind some iron transporting storage crates. The little bit of anger he was feeling emitted through his voice, not enough to try to intimidate the two younger teenagers.

Kai glared over at Kyoshi out of the corner of his eye, retaining his own anger at Kyoshi's tone while speaking, "We don't run, ever and even if we did, we were a little tied up." He growled in a whisper.

Tala stood up slightly from his crouched position and peered over the crate before kneeling back down beside Kyoshi, "You still haven't told us what's going on. And why did we leave her back there alone? She can't hold up for much longer." He whispered. The blonde sat back against the crate, he exhaled and pulled his gun back out of his back pocket, setting up and gripping it tightly into his hand before looking round to see if anyone was coming.

"We have more luck talking to a brick wall." Kai muttered angrily to his red-headed friend.

Kyoshi turned and sat on his heels, still adjusting a part of his almost broken gun, "I heard you." He said through gritted teeth.

"Doesn't mean you gave us an answer." Kai shot at him coldly.

Kyoshi looked over at the two beside him, glaring coldly with a fierceness in his eyes, looking over at Tala, "Shut your complaining friend up."

Tala turned to Kai to attempt what he had been asked to do but the killer glare that Kai set onto his features was one that made Tala just turn away from him again. Kyoshi looked over at Tala strangely, "I see you value your life." He whispered to him, regarding Tala's sudden fear of Kai. The red-head had clearly shrugged off the insult and just slowly stood up to peer over for any more gun men that had just been aiming at the three of them, Sakura included even though she was off somewhere in the warehouse still fighting them off.

"Since when do the henchmen of water demons use guns?" Kai asked quietly.

Kyoshi would have objected to answering that question but instead changed his mind and just answered him anyway but in a questioning answer, "Why should she waste her powers creating more demon minions when there are mortals who are ready to kill?"

Kai put a hand on Tala's shoulder and pulled him back a bit, "He has a point." He mumbled to him.

Kyoshi looked around, placing one hand on the ground to keep himself steady and to be able to push himself off the ground when ready. First he turned to Kai and Tala though, the two younger teenagers, he looked at them with a sense of fear in his eyes, a little bit of guilt for having to leave them alone, "Wait here, alright?" he whispered quietly in a warning tone, a stronger one than his features implied.

"We aren't just going to sit here." Tala whispered in a quick protest to the older boy.

Kyoshi stood up, being unable to sense an presences in the area, seeing it as safe to show himself for the time being, "They'll have you killed." He whispered down at them, glaring at them with a final warning, "Stay here." He ran off before the two teenagers had another moment to protest, the only way Kyoshi could get away without him being forced to yell at the two to get them to stay there.

Kai crept passed Tala and attempted leaving the safety of the hidden area until Tala grabbed his arm and shoulder and savagely pulled him back, "You heard him, we have to stay here." He growled coldly at his the ex-team mate, putting aside his kindness towards his stubborn friend.

"We can't just sit here till they get back, we'll die faster." To say the least Kai didn't actually like the thought of his friend standing up to him, Tala was one of the few people that didn't always seem to be intimidated by what he thought and ordered like the rest of his team, Tala tended to be a little more defiant than the others which anyone could say was a good thing, Kai needing to be put in his place once in a while.

"I don't think he would have left us here alone if he didn't think it were safe." Tala began to speak quietly through his gritted teeth, silently hoping to avoid an argument, something he still hated handling.

"Since when do you have so much faith in them?" Kai asked him, not exactly expecting an answer.

Tala glared at him before standing up quickly, looking down angrily at his friend before turning and running off, Kai following close behind. Just before the two left the room they had been in, Tala placed an arm out in Kai's way, gaining Kai's attention t his friend, "What is it?" he asked him.

Tala looked on at the ground for a moment, then slowly turning his head to look at Kai with a sharp glare on his face, "If we got shot, or ruin things, it'll be your fault." He reminded him bluntly. The ex-Biovolt experiment walked off by himself, out of the store room and into the middle of a shoot out, ducking behind some shelves when he heard a gunshot through the air in his direction. Kai in the meantime had stayed behind, thinking about what Tala had said before taking a good look at the whole scene that unfolded in front of him. In the front room, to his right, Tala was behind a shelf, constantly moving to be able to avoid the gunshots that passed through all the objects on the shelves. To his left there were the constant offenders, obviously all working for Hana who was sitting on a windowsill that was about six metres off the ground, dipping her hand in and playing with water from the bucket beside her.

Sakura and Kyoshi where on the far end of the room, the very end being surrounded as far as they could see, being locked in by the constant sounds of firing which was a dangerous and fearful distraction, not knowing from which direction the shots where coming from exactly. Kai returned to the present, blocking out the sound of guns for a moment to catch sight of Tala, running up to him and joining him to hide behind the tall shelves. "What is it exactly you're trying to prove?" Kai asked Tala quietly, the two dodging another on coming bullet.

Tala knelt down on the ground, arching his neck slightly to release the tension that had been brought up, "Nothing." He answered normally, sounding truthful.

It seemed as though Kyoshi had finally caught sight of the two boys, looking alarmed and angered more. His calm stature had disappeared and before he knew it he was shooting past the gunmen and stalked up to Kai and Tala, "Had I not been clear?" he asked, forgetting to lower his voice which got the attention of the remaining two fighters who had been shooting at bladers.

A tall tanned man with feary dark eyes, ran to the side of the shelf, seeing the three men there and shooting unmercifully at them. The red head being closest to Kyoshi, the older blonde was able to grab Tala's arm and pull him behind him but Kai wasn't as lucky and only missed two shots by a couple of inches. Kyoshi sighed and just pushed the two off, killing the last two offenders he showed himself to Hana, who only once noticing him looking up at her did she turn her eyes from her nails to look at him. She looked around, a sad and disappointed look on her face, turning back to Kyoshi when Sakura walked beside him, "You killed them." She pouted.

"They attacked us first." Sakura said coldly.

"Keep them away from us and things won't be like this again." Kyoshi added, just as cold hearted as Sakura had sounded.

Hana got rid of the pathetic disappointment from her face, glaring with her fierce dark lined eyes, "It isn't over." She disintegrated into water, a splash of the liquid hitting the window as she disappeared completely.

Sakura finished watching that before sharply turning round, aiming her gun straight out in front of her, aimed at Kai's chest, "You were given strict orders." She bit out, the clicking sound of her gun echoed in everyone's ears just before the bullet was fired out of the barrel. In time, Kyoshi had pulled slightly at Sakura's shooting arm, hindering her aim which made the bullet go straight through a box that was on one of the shelves instead of hitting Kai.

Kyoshi took the gun out of her hand, gripping the barrel in his hand as he looked over once from Sakura to Kai, "We should get going." He said.

Tala put a hand on Kai's shoulder, tightening the hold slightly before tugging at him, "We'll see you two later." He told them. The bladers walked away from them, ready to exit the room.

"Wait." Sakura's voice echoed through the room of dead bodies, "You should have stayed away before, now that you've gotten into this you should come with us, you can't possibly cause any more trouble for now." She spoke.

Kyoshi sighed, the girl clearly wasn't the most sensitive in the world now was she? He shook his head, the other two turning to look at him when he exhaled heavily, "What she means is that you're safer if you spend the night at our place."

Tala glanced over at Kai, seeing the bit of uncertainty in his eyes, "What do you think?" the red-head whispered.

"It's more of an order than a suggestion." Sakura told them, walking past them with a look of frustration on her scratched face, one of the enemies bullets which had grazed her cheek. She left the room, leaving the three intolerable men by themselves for a moment.

Kyoshi shook his head, sighing as he walked over to them while staring at the ground. Once stepping in front of them and thinking for a moment he looked up at them, "Excuse her, just come with us, you'll be in much less danger if you do. But, either way, it's your choice." He shrugged, just giving them a choice, walking past them ready to fend off the anger that was Sakura.

The younger blader turned from watching Kyoshi walk off, back to look at Kai with a bit of seriousness on his face, "I don't know about you, but I don't have a death wish anymore." He gave Kai a small smile, then turned and followed Kyoshi.

Kai thought for a moment, trying to ignore the stinging pain in his side. He looked at the empty doorway, taking a quick look around the room of blood and bodies before exiting the room in a hurry despite the searing pain.

**---At Sakura and Kyoshi's House---**

Sakura currently sat on a chair, Kyoshi's chair in front of her, his legs slightly parted so she rest her foot on the chair while he tended to the cut on her ankle, something she'd got when she'd fallen onto some broken glass from a window at the warehouse. She barely flinched, only resting her head back with a cigarette caught between her lips, although being sure that Kai and Tala where watching her from the sofa. She felt the dabbing of antiseptic on her foot stop and she lifted her head to look at her foot, Kyoshi nodding that she was done before she slid off the chair and walked out of the room, putting the usual amount of pressure on her foot without flinching.

"I'll check on you now." Kyoshi called, looking over at Kai.

Kai hadn't realized that Kyoshi was talking to him at first, suddenly looking up with some confusion, "I'm not hurt." He protested arrogantly.

"Yes you are." Tala whispered, looking over at the boy beside him.

Kyoshi smirked at Kai's cold attitude and Tala's bravery against his older friend and apparently guardian, "I can smell the blood from over here." He called out to him.

Tala hit Kai in the shoulder, whispering for him to go and let Kyoshi help him. Kai had been protesting for an extra two minutes before Tala's complaining was getting on his nerves and he got off the sofa, moving over to Kyoshi and sitting on the chair Sakura had been using. The tear in the side of his black jacket was evident once you got close enough, since the shirt underneath blended right in and blood couldn't be seen on such a dark colour. The cut wasn't too deep, it had been a really close call when the gun had been fired so at least Kai was lucky.

_**---Flashback---**_

_The gunman had just turned past the shelf, shots being fired suddenly, Kai being closest but his concern was still on Tala. The red-head was safe, just behind the oldest male who had pulled him behind him.__ Too many bullets were being set off for anyone to be able to tell where they were coming from, Kyoshi shooting from behind him and one of the crazy Hana minions shooting from in front of him. He'd dodged most of the bullets thus far, one though clipping the side of his stomach._

_**---End Flashback---**_

The blonde vampire soaked some cotton wool in surgical spirit, raising his eyes to keep an eye on Kai as he dabbed at the ripped skin. To Kyoshi's surprise Kai didn't seem phased by the stinging medicine against his skin. He'd been used to this kind of reaction, or rather no reaction, from Sakura but that was because of her little ability to shrug off those minor kind of wounds, the same kind of feeling coming from Kai was a little surprising to him, making him wonder more about the teenagers.

Kyoshi continued to tend to the cut, thankfully having no urges of any kind upon seeing the blood on the skin which felt good to him, it made him feel as though he'd overcome the sudden urges he had on seeing blood. He got a little distracted upon seeing his girlfriend walk back into the room, carrying a tray of coffee for all of them, setting it down on the table, passing one to Tala, one to Kai who instantly put it on the table to keep himself from dropping it because of his slightly shaking hand, and one to Kyoshi who took a quick sip and put it on the ground beside the foot of the chair.

To say the least Kai was getting fed up with just sitting there and allowing a stranger to tend to a wound that he didn't care about but the glare coming from Tala every few minutes was what kept him sitting there. If he could avoid stressing his friend out any more than he was going to do that, even if it took a lot out of him. The piece of wool kept digging deeper at the wound, sending slightly strong shocks through his nerves, making him wince occasionally with Kyoshi noticing clearly. The blonde let the sound slide, ignoring it for a while, thinking that Kai probably wouldn't appreciate him saying anything. He was sure the cut was cleaned properly when he picked up his mug and got off the chair, walking past the sofa while giving Sakura a slide of his hand over her shoulder, "Saku, take over for me, would you?" he didn't wait for an answer and walked into the kitchen.

The raven-haired girl got off the sofa, placing her mug down on the coffee table then walking over to Kyoshi's old place. She first picked up a small cream, a small tube, squeezing out some of it onto her index finger before lining it along the edges and surrounding area of the cut. Surprising Kai a little it had turned out to be a numbing cream that she'd been applying as he slowly felt the cold substance take affect on his skin. Sakura continued to apply the cream for a little while longer, applying it gently and quietly, not uttering a word ever since they'd left the warehouse. Sakura covered up the slashed space of skin with some gauze, tapping it down and getting up to walk away while giving him a tap on the shoulder, implying he was done.

Right on time, the blonde of the group walked into the room with his cup of coffee, sitting down on the sofa beside Sakura. He turned to glance at Kai who sat down on the sofa beside his friend Tala, taking sips of his coffee and not making eye contact with anyone else. Kyoshi looked over at Sakura next to him out of the corner of his eye, watching as she shrugged at him and turned back to her coffee. The blonde raised an eyebrow at the two across the room, "So are you two okay?" he asked, more randomly than anything else.

Tala looked up quickly at the speaker, he wasn't sure what to do or to say, not entirely sure how to act around these people. The past few weeks he'd had a lot of trouble with trying to make his mind up about things, partially because back when he had those implants in his brain he'd react to something always in the same way, he wasn't used to changing and making things up for himself anymore. He almost tried a small smile, just slightly, "I'm fine." He replied.

The friendly older male nodded with a smile on his face, quite enjoying Tala's character, "And your friend?" he asked, regarding the bluenette that sat beside the redhead in deep thought.

Tala looked over at Kai, watching him as he stared down at his mug that was gripped in his hand. Tala hit Kai in the shoulder gently to get his attention, startling him vaguely, making him look up quickly around him, "Ah, me too." He replied once he realized what the question was.

The vampire sighed and shook his head, Kai clearly was the most difficult to deal with out of all of them, he even found Sakura more pleasant to be around. He looked up at them again, taking note that Kai had gone back to staring at the mug, "You two are going to stay the night?" he asked, particularly aiming the question at Tala who was the only one who was really paying any attention. Again the youngest in the room looked like he wasn't sure of what to say so Kyoshi continued, "We don't mind if that's what you're wondering and you're safer here for a while."

"You're probably right." Tala muttered to himself, Kyoshi's vampiric senses hearing him.

He nodded and smiled, "Alright then, you and your friend could take my room, Saku will have hers and I'll sleep on the sofa." He sorted out.

"No…you won't." Sakura spoke for the first time since leaving the warehouse the shooting had taken place in, she looked over suddenly, fiercely at Kyoshi, "You haven't been sleeping well, you should be sleeping comfortably and in your own bed. The boys will take my room, you keep your room and I'll stay in the living room." She corrected, her specific and identifiable voice never changing its rough and cold tone.

"That's alright too." Kyoshi whispered to her.

"Good. It's settled then." Saku said, standing up and leaving the room a moment later.

**---Later---**

Saku sat outside on the fire escape, leaning back against the wall beside the window with a cigarette in her mouth, an ashtray on the iron barred floor of the landing of the escape. She stared off at the empty streets that surrounded the house, constantly moving the cigarette back and forth from her mouth. Finally she just left it caught between her lips, resting her head back against the wall and looking up into the darkening sky.

Kyo popped his head out of the window, seeing her there he opened the window more and climbed outside onto the escape, sitting down beside her. Saku turned her head slightly to look over at him, her head still touching the wall, she pulled the cigarette out of her mouth again and put it in the ash tray and putting it out. "So how are they?" she asked quietly.

Kyo nodded normally, replying just as quietly as she had spoken, "They're alright. They've eaten, gone to get some sleep, I guess they're just a little shaken up."

"They should be. They got into a huge fight today, I don't expect them to be brave about it, I just expect them to listen to our orders."

Kyoshi slowly pulled Sakura close to him, making her rest against him so he could put his arms around her, "We're still strangers to them remember? They aren't going to just trust us with their lives." He reminded her.

"I know." Sakura muttered angrily. She slowly but steadily calmed down after a few moments though, feeling the boy beside her tracing her fingers through a series of steps till their fingers were entwined together. Kyoshi hadn't been watching where his hands where moving exactly, then feeling something on her hand he looked down in a bit of surprise. On her right hand was her engagement ring, shining outside in the moon light.

He smiled happily, although feeling sure he had a tear stinging his eye but wished he could have passed it off as dust, "You wore it again?" he asked her.

Saku allowed a small smile to appear on her face for the first time in the whole day. She opened her hand more and looked at the sparkling engagement ring, "Of course." She replied.

"I thought you said you weren't going to where it…because you didn't want to lose it in a fight."

Sakura resisted the urge to laugh and managed to reply, "That's true but I wear it everyday before bed, just for a little while." The girl reached forward, picking up her pack of cigarettes again and slipping one out, passing it through each of her fingers before lighting it.

"You really think that once Hana is gone things will be better?" Kyoshi asked after a few minutes of silence.

Saku held the cigarette between her two fingers while her forearm rested on her knee, biting down on her tongue in her mouth for a moment before speaking, "Whether or not you think it will, I promise things will be better than they are now."

Kyoshi felt a small pang of fear in his heart, maybe even some sadness, "But what if…"

Saku just sighed, turned slightly and put the cigarette between Kyo's lips. "Take it easy and stop worrying about the future so much." She whispered, lying back against his chest again.

The blonde male smirked slightly, opting to pull the cigarette out of his mouth to speak, "Maybe you're right." He shrugged. After a quiet moment between the two he gently moved her forward and pushed himself up, leaving the cigarette in his mouth while he opened the window again and wished her a quiet good night. Saku picked up her box of cigarettes again, opening it up but sighing with utter frustration once she realized she'd just given her last one to Kyoshi. She tossed the box into the ashtray and looked out at the lit city, sighing again before getting up and going back inside to get some sleep from the long day.

She stepped back into the living room, going to the bathroom and changing for bed, wearing black shorts and a black t-shirt. She walked out running her fingers through her long black hair, then standing in the doorway to Kyo's bedroom. She watched him lying there on the leather bed, staring at the ceiling with the cigarette still fixed in his mouth. He suddenly noticed her standing there and lifted his head slightly, then sitting up a bit with his hands behind his back for support, "What is it?" he asked her.

Saku took the opportunity to walk over to him, sitting in front of him on the bed, "Just wondering if you're really okay." She said.

Her vampire smiled at her lightly, sweetly all the same before moving forward and giving her a kiss on the cheek, "I am." He assured her.

**A/N: Alright so that's another chapter there for you. Now, a few notices. Sadly I am not getting that much feedback for this story, I've got to constant reviewers(they know who they are) and that's it but I need a bit more if I want to keep writing. This story is on the favourites list of about five or six people, most of which who have never reviewed so I'd like their opinions. So, unless I get at least four reviews, this story isn't going to be updated so it's really up to you whether or not you get another chapter. **

**Now in my profile I have put up the profiles of Sakura and Kyoshi, there **_**are**_** some spoilers but not too much. My reason for putting them up is so that I could be a bit more informative, particularly if this story is being stopped or put on hold. Please leave a review. **

**Bye!**


	6. One Night

_**Chapter 6**_

**---Next Morning---**

Sakura lay on her stomach in Kyoshi's bed; her crossed arms perched onto the soft pillow with her head resting comfortably on them. The black sheets only reaching to the small of her back, showing off the pale scarred skin of her bare back, Kyoshi's fingers tracing down along her spine and side. A content smile was on both their faces, Sakura enjoying the sweet movements on her back, while Kyoshi was happy for the little attention and comfort he got while being next to her.

Kyoshi smirked, just as he was about to run his finger over an area on Saku's side he knew she was ticklish. His finger was seconds away from brushing the skin when, "Don't you dare." Saku whispered, a bit of playfulness in her voice compared to usual, a small smirk on her face for catching him in time.

Kyo sighed, shaking his head and lying down on his back again, "You're unbelievable." He whispered.

The girl brushed her hair behind her ear, cuddling closer to the boy. She moved her mouth over to his ear, her left hand running imaginary lines down his back, "I know." She smirked. Saku pulled away from him again, returning to her beginning position on her stomach, Kyo doing the same thing but putting one arm across her back and keeping his head to the side so he could look at her. "We still have time to sleep thankfully so don't wake me for a while, okay?" she whispered, closing her eyes again.

The blonde male pulled himself a little closer to her, giving her shoulder a quick kiss before resting his head on his arm again, "Don't worry." He turned over onto his back, leaving his hands on his bare stomach as he stared up at the ceiling with some thought. Someone had just walked past his room though, too fast for him to tell as the person had gone to the living room already.

Kyoshi sat up quickly, the blanket falling and revealing his bare chest again. Just in time Kai had attempted to pass by the room but had clearly already seen the two, he gave Kyoshi a light irritated glare and spoke coldly, "The least you could have done was found a room with a door." He walked straight on after that, joining his friend in the living room.

The man in bed rolled his eyes, lying back down comfortably on his back while shaking his head slightly, "Damn teenagers." He muttered.

The teenager lying beside him shifted uncomfortably on her stomach, adjusting her head on her arms, "If I weren't so tired I'd go and aim a gun to that's guys head." She whispered to him, a playful smirk adjusting itself on her lips.

Kyoshi laughed quietly, turning his head to look at her again, "Careful, he's mortal." He reminded.

She could tell the boy was still watching her intently as she yawned from her tiredness, then quietly speaking, "A girl can dream of shooting him, can't she?" she asked, sounding and looking so serious as she said it.

The vampire just couldn't help but laugh at that, finding her malicious humour funny at times, "Of course she can." He answered. He sat up slightly on his side, running his fingers through the girl's silky black hair, then giving her a kiss on the top of her head, "I'll keep them company, take it easy for a few hours." He crawled out of bed, pulling on a white t-shirt, watching as Saku sat up slightly, tugging the blankets tighter around her and reaching for his pack of cigarettes on the nightstand.

She'd just picked up the box, opening it up and attempting to slide one out when Kyo took the box from her. "Oi!" she shot, looking over at him quickly.

The boy smiled, lifting the packet for her to see, "You just woke up." He reminded her.

Saku turned over onto her back, lifting the covers to cover herself up more, "What's your point?" she asked, watching as the boy pulled on a pair of jeans.

Kyoshi shook his head, smiling so much his elongated canines were showing on the sides of his mouth, "Point is you're not going to have any for a couple of hours." He rephrased, making things clear to her before he left the room and entered the living room to join the other two boys of the house. "Morning." He greeted the two, calling to them as he walked past and into the kitchen.

"Good morning." Tala greeted more kindly, Kai just grunting quietly in some sort of agreement if that's what you wanted to call it.

"Slept well?"

"We weren't attacked if that's what you're asking." Kai commented loudly in a reply.

The vampire laughed and shook his head, picking his coffee up from the counter, "It's not what I was implying but it's still a good answer." He inhaled the strong aroma of his coffee, then taking a sip as he rested the small of his back against the kitchen counter. He put the mug back onto the counter, "You two want coffee?" he asked them, appearing in the kitchen doorway to see them.

"None for me." Tala replied.

"Yes please." Kai answered.

Kyoshi nodded, turning and walking back into the kitchen to make another coffee. Tala walked into the kitchen behind Kyoshi, biting down on his lip for a second before speaking under Kyoshi's slightly surprised look, "Water, please?"

Kyo smiled suddenly, "Right, sorry." He left the boiling water and mug on the counter, walking over to the fridge and pulling out a small sealed bottle of water and handing it over to Tala. He heard the red-head mutter a quiet 'thank you', he nodded and went back to making the coffee for Kai, "You're friend in there…is he alright?" he asked quietly after a while.

Tala had just finished drinking about half of the water when he'd heard the question that surprised him slightly. He looked over at Kyoshi, watching as he picked up his own coffee and sipped it, "As far as I know." He replied.

"So he's always…like that?"

The red-head defended against laughing at the comment, "These are his bad days, he gets better." He replied, smiling at the other male. He took another sip of cold water, soothing his parched throat, "And your girlfriend?" he asked suddenly.

The vampire was in the middle of taking another sip of coffee when he'd heard that, almost laughing once thinking about it. He finished making Kai's coffee while he replied with a content smile on his face, "I wish I could give you an answer as nice as the one you gave about your friend." He stated.

"There's nothing good about her?"

Kyo shrugged slightly, turning back to Tala, "I wouldn't say that…she takes her job seriously, she treats me like dirt most of the time because of it but I've learnt to live with it. She really isn't that bad if you give her the chance to prove it to you, she's just got more of a…tough love approach." He answered.

Tala nodded quickly, "I know what that's like." He whispered.

The two had a silent agreement on that as they walked back into the living room, Kyoshi handing Kai's coffee over to him, "There you go." The two that had just entered the room sat down on the sofa, Tala next to Kai and Kyoshi on the far end, "So you two plan on staying out of trouble for the rest of the day?" he asked them.

"Hana came after us, not the other way around." Kai stated coldly to Kyo.

Kyo nodded slightly, "But you didn't exactly follow orders to protect yourselves either."

Kai refused to answer, just continued to drink the coffee he had been given. Tala glanced over from Kyoshi to Kai, seeing the two were so alike yet so different in the same way. The two were sipping their coffee, ignoring each other a little, both having an uncaring look on their faces regarding the situation. He hated these kinds of things, he always saw them happening in the abbey but refused to be any part of any of them, staying as far away as he could from them. This case was a little different, he was in a stranger's house, being unable to just get up and walk away from being in the middle of some fight. He always looked brave, strong and cold, and true he was all that and did appear as all of that but deep down, especially without Boris' brain implants, he could feel that he hated arguments and fights. He sunk back into the pillows, feeling a little uncomfortable in the situation of being stuck in the middle of things.

The three heard quiet footsteps leaving the bedroom and all looked up, seeing Saku walking out of Kyoshi's room wrapped up in the black sheet. The object perched between her lips surprised Kyo a bit, making him ask, "Where'd you get that?" referring to the cigarette in her mouth as she held the blankets close to her body.

Saku turned round, smiling and pulling the cigarette out of her mouth, sticking her tongue out at him before popping the cigarette back in her mouth, "Serves you right." She said turning and walking down the hall to the bathroom to have a shower.

Kyoshi shook his head, getting up and walking into his bedroom. He opened the cupboard of his nightstand, finding another packet of cigarettes missing from his stash; he smiled in his mind giving her credit for finding them since it was the fifth time within the recent three days that he'd changed the hiding place for them. He stood up and walked back into the living room, seeing no point in hiding the stash again for a while. He sat down on the sofa again, picking up his coffee from the table and sipping it quietly before raising his eyes at the other two, "You want me to leave you two alone to talk?" he asked them.

Tala and Kai looked up at him; both a little puzzled by his question, "Why?" Tala asked.

Kyoshi shrugged and stood up again, "You both go silent when Sakura and I are in the room."

Kai looked up at him, raising an eyebrow although Kyoshi didn't seem to be looking at him at the time, "And you're taking something like that personally?" he asked coldly.

Kyoshi laughed quietly and shook his head, "I'm part of a band, I don't take anything people say personally anymore." He replied. He gave the two a final smile and then turned and walked down the hall the way Saku had gone minutes before. He stepped into her bedroom, looking strangely at the bed that had been neatly made after the other two teenagers had slept in it that night. He shook his head slightly, walking to the side of the bed and putting his drink down on the bedside table. He sat down on the bed, his hands by his sides as he kept staring at the ground for a moment.

The boy snapped out of his sudden ongoing thoughts, taking a deep breath and lying down on the bed, fixing the pillows so he could sit up comfortably. He took the few minutes of silence to relax a little, something told him it was going to be another long day and it wasn't like he could go out for a walk or something; he was confined to his home. His hands were kept on his stomach, occasionally one hand folding tighter around the other. He closed his eyes, relaxing into the pillows before stressing again and opening his eyes to stare up at the ceiling.

Sakura stepped out of her bathroom, wearing her usual black shirt and trousers but walking barefooted at the moment. She had a towel over her shoulders as she ran her fingers through her wet clean hair. She'd seen Kyoshi lying there as he continued to stare at the ceiling; she remained watching him from her place in the middle of the room, remaining silent just as he had. The girl finished tending to her long black hair and tossed the towel onto the floor in the bathroom. She closed her eyes for a second, then moving over to the mirror as she slid her eyeliner off the counter. She stood in front of it, looking into it and being able to see Kyoshi's reflection in the back. The girl tended to putting the make up under her eyes, being a little distracted when she'd seen Kyoshi turn onto his side uncomfortably, almost poking herself in the eye with the eyeliner pencil. She put it down and turned back to him, leaning back against the dressing table to look at him. "Nani?" she asked coldly. **("What?")**

Kyoshi glanced over at her, lifting his head slightly to look at her before returning to his position, "Dame, kekkou desu." **("Nothing, it's ok")**

Saku shifted and pushed herself away from the dressing table walking over to the side of the bed, "Eeto…" she whispered, placing a hand on his shoulder and turning him to lie on his back. **("Let me see…") **

Kyoshi flinched angrily and turned back onto his side, "Yamero yo, onegai." He growled. **("Stop it, please")**

Saku placed one arm under his back and rolled him over again but onto her arm, her hand holding him down by the side of his stomach, "Ochitsuite. Shizukani." **("Relax. Be quiet.") ** Once Kyoshi had relaxed in her arms she took it as a sign that he no longer intended on fighting her off for the rest of the morning. He tended to be like that, suddenly emotional about something that past; it was the affect of blood loss and mental instability from some trauma to go with it. She got out from under him and let go of him completely, turning and sitting in front of him on the bed, "Dou shita no?" **("What happened?") **She remained that way, staring down at him casually for about two more minutes before shrugging lightly, "Osukina you ni. Dewa mata atode." She got off the bed and walked out of the bedroom, quietly closing the door behind her. **("As You Wish. See you later.")**

The raven-haired girl walked past the two boys that were seated in the living room, entering the kitchen without a word to the other two. The boys kept an eye on the kitchen door and in another minute she was walking out of it with a mug of steaming hot coffee in her hands, ignoring them and attempting to walk down the hall. "Hey! Do you intend on just leaving us here?" Kai asked angrily, standing up as he called behind the girl.

Saku's wet black hair stuck to her face and neck mostly, particularly when she stopped in her tracks at the sound of Kai's voice. She turned round, staring him right in the eye from the living room entrance, "Well yes I did, I figured that if you two just sat there all day without speaking or moving you'd cause people less trouble."

Just those words where already enough to begin to anger Kai but the only reason he didn't act on that impulse was because Tala was standing just beside him and the last thing he wanted was his friend in the middle of an argument. Kai and Tala had discussed things, deciding to do things Tala's way, which was to be trusting to a degree towards Kyoshi and Sakura and to work things out a little more civilly then Kai was wishing in his mind. "So we can leave?" Kai asked quickly, biting back the bitter response he had in mind.

The band's singer looked over at the clock that hung off the living room wall, watching it plainly as it ticked away the seconds that past. After a minute she looked over at them again, the look on her face no changing in the slightest, "You can go home, straight there, no stops whatsoever. Shower, change, wait there till about 10pm then meet Kyoshi and I at the bar." She ordered, monotonously.

Kai and Tala both nodded, walking past Sakura without another real word apart from Tala's quiet and sincere, "Bye." The two left the house quietly, getting back out onto the swelteringly hot streets.

Kai let out a quiet growl from under his breath, his fists clenching by his sides, "Who is she to tell us how to live our lives?!" he whispered, his uncontrollable anger seeping through.

The red-head walking beside him sighed "Take it easy, Kai."

"How you see her bossing us around as helpful I have no idea." Kai continued.

Tala exhaled again, shaking his head as he stared on at the ground, "I'm sure they're both doing it for our own good." He said.

Kai's ongoing anger didn't seem to stop there and the anger reflecting in his eyes could be seen as deadly blood red, "We'd be better off fighting these things alone." He whispered.

That was the end of it, Tala couldn't take it. He stopped, slamming his hands against Kai's shoulders, "You're talking nonsense. They have guns, Kai, guns and we haven't dealt with those in years. We can't defend ourselves on our own, get that into your thick skull." He was angry, obviously but he continued to speak quietly so that the people that surrounded them as they walked past wouldn't hear him speak of such things.

"How can you trust them so much?" Kai asked quietly.

Tala let go of Kai's shoulders and turned back into the direction they were meant to be walking in, continuing his journey back to Kai's apartment. "I have no choice. I don't want to be the same person I was in the abbey, and a part of me does believe they're only trying to help us."

"We're doing things your way here. I hope you know what you're doing." Kai glanced over at his friend as the two walked to the apartment.

"If I'm not right then say 'I told you so' and I won't care."

Kai shook his head and looked over at Tala again, "That'll be a little hard when we're both dead." He reminded him.

The two arrived at the apartment, climbing the stairs in silence while Tala thought deeply about what Kai had said. They got to the apartment, Kai turning to go to his bathroom to have a shower and change but Kai's words stopped him, "Kai, let's hope it doesn't have to come to that." Tala parted, leaving Kai alone in the living room while he went back into his bedroom. He closed the door quietly behind him, turning his back towards his bed, falling back onto the cool material.

He took the opportunity to relax a little, considering the thought that he was going to remain in the apartment for the next few hours till he went back to the bar to meet the others. He was comfortable there, too comfortable to make himself get up as his mind reminded him of how tired the heat was making him feel. It took a while for his stubbornness to accept the fact that he felt weaker than usual. He was sure it was the blood loss from his surgery and the heat that he was unaccustomed to wasn't helping him at all. He mustered up enough energy to get off the bed after a while, then slowly walking back into the inhabitant living room. He lay back on the sofa, reaching his arm out to grab the remote control of the air conditioner. He switched it on and turned over onto his side comfortably, closing his eyes and basking in the cool air as he attempted to sleep.

**---With Sakura and Kyoshi---**

Saku slowly and quietly stepped into her bedroom, closing the door behind her. She had left him alone for almost an hour and a half and she'd had enough of it and wanted to check on him. She leaned against the door, her hands behind her back as she watched him shaking lightly, tears washing over his pale cheeks. She walked over to him, kneeling on the bed just beside him as she bit down on her lip. The palm of her hand rested on his cheek, her thumbing rubbing gently at the soft skin under his eye to wipe away the tears, "Nakanaide." She whispered, almost in a whining voice as she lay down beside him, her hand not moving. **("Don't cry.") **

Kyoshi sat up on his side slightly, supporting himself by leaning on his elbow, his hands rubbing frantically at his teary eyes. "Gomen na." he whispered hoarsely. **("Sorry.") **

Sakura forced a small smile onto her face, gently moving her hand back up to wipe off any dampness, shrugging slightly, "Maa ii deshou." She sat up slightly on her own side, giving Kyoshi a soft and careful kiss on the cheek for some sort of comfort. **("It's Okay") **She gave him a pat on the shoulder, getting off the bed, "Genki o dashite." She turned towards the door, opened it and slid outside again, leaving Kyoshi alone for a while. **("Cheer up.")**

Kyo slumped, lying on his back, tossing the pillows onto the floor before turning back onto his side and using his arm as a pillow instead, finding that much more comfortable. He suppressed the tears, especially the stinging at the beginning which he found more painful then dealing with the actual tears. He was having no problem with it after a while, replying Saku's most recent words over and over in his head in an attempt to make himself feel better somehow. He decided on getting up and speaking to Saku for a while, as long as he possibly could actually just for the sake of talking and using his voice. He walked out of the bedroom, then down the hall and to Saku who was seated in the living room; sitting comfortably on the sofa, a note pad on her lap and a pencil in hand. She glanced up at him blankly, coxing him to speak or keep his mouth shut, "I'm sorry." He told her, sounding brave but scared at the same time, trying hard to come through with a tough façade, one that wasn't really his expertise.

Saku returned her attention back to the notepad and continued writing as she replied, "I already told you that you don't have to be."

Kyoshi shook his head and sat down on the armchair, "But I am. I'm sorry for everything." He couldn't help it anymore, the tears were stinging again, making his vision blur and his eyes flutter closed rapidly.

Saku raised her eyes from her work, sensing the quiet tremor in Kyo's young voice and watching the tears slid down the cheeks again. She sighed, a little out of sadness while the rest was out of some frustration. She got off the sofa, walking over to Kyoshi and stood in front of him, staring down at him as he stared at the ground.

Kyoshi wouldn't look at her. He stared somewhere to Sakura's right, into space, refusing to acknowledge Sakura's presence in front of him. His face wasn't able to reflect many of the emotions he was feeling, the anger towards himself couldn't be seen, just heard, the contortion of his face from the tears and wracking sobs showed off his sadness, and even when he was relaxed the tear tracks that ran down his left cheek showed very little, but Sakura knew Kyoshi, and Sakura knew that Kyo was feeling more than his visage would indicate. Kyo looked sensitive and fragile, even though he had tried not to but even with what could be seen, that wasn't even half of it.

"Don't be like this, you don't have to be." Sakura whispered, wiping the tear from Kyoshi's cheek with her thumb as she did before, the gentleness of the gesture a sharp juxtaposition to his anger from only moments before. Sakura took Kyoshi's shoulder and pulled it to him, Kyoshi's weight settling against her stomach. With one hand atop Kyoshi's head, he whispered into his hair, "It's just like when you when I was younger but a little in reverse, isn't it?" in a voice tinged with nostalgia and affection, and a sadness so deep that no words could put a voice to it. Kyoshi still said nothing, and the only indication that he had heard Sakura's words was a slight hitch in the regular pattern of his breathing and that already was enough for Sakura, enough to tell her that Kyoshi had heard the caring behind his words, enough to tell her that Kyoshi knew her as well.

Saku slowly attempted to remove the boy from against her stomach, pushing him back by his shoulder but a moment later Kyoshi wrapped his arms around Saku's waist, stood up and gave her a soft and chaste kiss. Saku placed her hands on Kyoshi's and gently moved them away, she squeezed them both tightly in her hands, looking up and giving him a quick kiss before letting go and walking away from him. She went back to sitting on the sofa, pulling her notepad back onto her lap and picking up her pencil, she looked up at him as he stared down at her from across the room with a blank look on his face, "Go and get ready, we have to go out tonight." She reminded him, turning back to her work.

Kyoshi nodded slightly, remembering about their performance for the night. They'd been having the same shows every few days for months, he even amazed himself whenever he forgot about one. He thought for only a second, looking over at the girl again as he watched her working, ignoring him for another moment. He turned and left the room, walking into his own bedroom to get some clothes to change in.

Sakura heard the footsteps leaving the bedroom and going back down the hall to the bathroom to have a shower. She raised her eyes and looked on after him as he left, her facial expression a blank but her eyes holding a little bit of concern. Once he disappeared her eyes glazed over once more, returning to their cold blank stare, she glared on down the hall before turning back to her work casually.

**---That Night---**

Kyoshi and Sakura walked through all the crowded people in the bar, Sakura keeping an eye out for the two teenagers but Kyoshi had his hand buried in his pocket while the other held onto the strap of his guitar case, staring at the ground as he walked through the heaps of people. They arrived in the back room, Sakura following back on the door as she closed it behind her, "Those people are crazy." She told her band mates.

Danny, the drummer and tallest of the group laughed at her from the sofa, looking up at her from the book he was reading, "You should have got here at opening time." He told her.

"Yeah well we got hung up with some things." Saku retorted angrily, glancing over at Kyo out of the corner of her eye, seeing him sit comfortably on the armchair. "So where's James?" she asked suddenly, sitting beside Danny.

"Out back smoking." Danny replied, jerking a thumb to his side.

Saku smiled suddenly and stood up, pulling her cigarette carton out of her back pocket, "He was always the smart one." She turned and opened the door that led outside into the back alley behind the bar.

_**---Dream---**_

_Kyo had been sitting for about an hour under the dark night sky, the bit of light coming from the half moon that shone in the sky surrounded by bright stars. He was sitting on the black railings, his back towards the sea and rock side as he stared up into the sky, watching all the stars and the clear moon. He was free for the whole night with no school in the morning so he chose to enjoy the night out for a while. _

_The whole time he noticed that the whole sea front was filled with other students from the art school he attended. Down the road he had seen a guitarist playing for the crowd of people that flocked around him. Kyo knew him from his class, he didn't know him too well but he still knew him at least. On the other end of the sidewalk a young teenage girl, an aspiring artist from the school sat by herself. He didn't know her very well either, just that her name was Naomi and she was taking a course in art. She was there, sitting quietly on a wooden bench, her sketch pad perched on her lap and a box of assorted colours beside her as she was focused on the page. _

_Her long brown hair fell gracefully over her shoulders, her tongue constantly moving from one side to the other in her mouth as her eyes were almost always set on the picture that was being formed. She straightened out her navy blue skirt, then staring down at her drawing, smiling as she felt proud of her artistic abilities. _

_Kyo had still been staring off into space, finding the view inspiring and calming. He slipped his box of cigarettes out of his back pocket, drawing one out half way and picking it out with his mouth, pulling the box away. He stayed without lighting it for about five minutes, just it in his mouth while looking around him, the view of the moonlight shining over the dark marine sea behind him and the people that walked in front of him. _

_Amidst the noise he heard heels tapping against the stone floors. He turned forward to see who was approaching when he heard the sound getting closer and louder. Naomi stepped up in front of him, trying a small smile through the burning tinge in her cheeks, "Hi." She greeted quietly._

_Kyo slipped himself off the railings, looking at her blankly as he caught the cigarette between his two fingers, bringing it to his side, "Hi." He greeted too._

_The boy had a cool but still sweet heir about him, this slightly intimidating the girl a little more. She shifted uncomfortably under his stare, biting down on her lip before handing out to him the loose page from her artbook. "Here…it's for you." She said quickly._

_Kyoshi looked up at her, suddenly a little startled. Seeing her acting so shyly, he smiled sweetly at her, particularly for her shyness and took the picture slowly. He looked down at it, a little shocked upon seeing the perfect picture. _

_In all his dark black clothing drawn onto the picture he was there sitting cross-legged on the shining black railings. Beautiful colours of purple, blues, reds and oranges filled the painted sky behind him in the picture. His hands where gripping the railings beside him, staring down at the stone floor. On the ground by his legs was his black guitar case, red lining the edges as the case was shaped identically like a coffin. The whole picture was wonderful as a whole, beautifully colorful around the edges but dark and mysterious looking around him. _

_He looked up at her quickly once he'd taken in the whole picture, serious at first which scared her into thinking he didn't like it. He kindly smiled suddenly, searching for the right thing to say, "It's perfect, thank you." He said quickly._

_Naomi smiled suddenly, nodding quickly, "I have to go. I'll see you in school?" she asked him._

_Kyoshi nodded slowly, "Definitely." He replied._

_Naomi smiled happily, turned and walked away. She suddenly turned back to him, walking backwards back to the bench, waving a silent bye __before turning back to her things on the bench and packing up to leave. _

_Kyoshi knelt down on the ground once she left, opening his guitar case. He put the picture on the guitar in the case, leaving it in there for safe keeping till he got home. He closed the case again and got up, looking around him before sitting back on the railings. He turned round so that his legs hung over the railings on the other side, so he looked out over at the sea, gripping the bars tightly in his hands as if he let go he could fall down to the rocky ground beneath to his death. _

_**---End Dream--- **_

Sakura and James walked in from outside, Saku putting a fake, almost sarcastic smile on her face as she saw Kyoshi. She walked over to the armchair, kneeling down in front of it and taking in Kyoshi's form. The boy lay on his side, his legs pulled up onto the seat, his arms around them tightly with his cheek pressed up against the back of the sofa, sound asleep. "How cute…" Sakura said sweetly. Her face had an almost malicious look to it all of a sudden, only a slight one. She hit him quickly on the shoulder, "Wake up." She ordered harshly, standing up again.

Kyoshi woke up with a start, his heart racing heavily as he turned onto his back and looked up at the girl. "What is it?" he asked quickly, breathing heavily.

Sakura picked up a cigarette from the box on the table, handing it over to him, "We're on in fifteen minutes." She told him. Kyoshi sighed, took the cigarette from her and stood up, walking out the back door. Sakura smirked and sat back on the armchair Kyo had just been in.

Danny looked up at her again, smiling as he shook his head, "You two are only engaged but you fight as though you're an old married couple." He commented.

"You remember who handles your pay check right?" Sakura asked him.

Danny placed his index finger to his lips, then casting his eyes back down to his book. James couldn't help but laugh, Danny was whipped really. James was the one member of the group that was better of then the rest of them, leaving by himself in a large house with all the money he wanted to spend. Danny was different though, he grew up in a foster home and always strived to be less dependent on the rest of his foster family so he had been working for any money ever since he could remember. Sakura was just about the same but a little different, she grew up in an orphanage even though her dad was alive and well. He was a busy politician, not having much time to look after her so he left her in the orphanage and just deposited some extra money into her bank account every special occasion possible. Although the girl never touched that money, she always lived off of her own money, the money she earned by herself from doing odd jobs and playing in clubs.

Kyoshi being a vampire didn't even have a bank account and no family left to speak of anyway and without an identification and no real opportunity to get out of the house in the day time he was unable to ever get a job other than playing in clubs at night. He didn't mind it too much, he got to play music which he loved, he would have just preferred it if he had more time to drink blood but that alone wasn't the case. He didn't have the heart to kill people for their blood, he didn't want to kill just to live a life he didn't really want. Said vampire tossed his cigarette onto the ground, stomping on it once before turning and walking back inside to join the others.

"Feeling better?" He heard Sakura ask him from the arm chair.

He'd heard the question clearly enough but it actually took a moment to factor it in and come up with an answer. He nodded slowly and answered with, "Yeah, a little."

Saku got out of the chair and moved to stand behind it, tapping her hand against the back of it as indication for him to sit down. He looked at her a little surprised at first before he walked over and sat back. Sakura moved to sit on the arm of the chair, picking up Kyoshi's hand and running her fingers over his knuckles, gaining his attention. He looked up at her slowly, taking in her harsh expression but basking in the tone of her quiet, almost comforting question, "Will you be okay?"

Kyoshi nodded again, "Fine." He whispered in reply.

The girl slid off the armchair and walked out the front door the led down the hall to the bar. Kyoshi sighed and just rested his head back, a small groan escaping him as he stared at the ceiling, "What's with her?" James asked.

Kyoshi shrugged and muttered a, "I have no idea."

Danny closed his book and tossed it back onto the coffee table, "Easier question, what's with you?" he asked suddenly.

Kyo's exhausted look turned to confused in under a second, his head shooting back to look at him, "What do you mean?" he asked quickly.

"You're spacey and distant and you weren't always like that." Danny pointed out to him.

James nodded quickly in agreement, "And I've never seen you look so…skinny and pale before." He added.

Kyoshi thought about it for a moment, they were right and he knew it, he had been getting skinnier and skinnier over the little time that passed and his paler complexion was from the lack of blood he absorbed. A vampire was meant to drink blood at least four times a week at night. Kyoshi was lucky if he even drank blood once in a week, sometimes he went without blood for weeks at a time. He snapped back out of his thoughts, looking up at them clearly, "I'm fine. The doctor said I'm fine and I feel fine." He continued assuring.

James shrugged a little and stood up, walking to the other end of the room and leaning back against the wall, "We hope you're right, we're just trying to look out for you."

Kyoshi nodded slightly, taking in that fact, "I know, and I appreciate it but I'm fine." He seemed confident in what he was saying at least, which probably made the whole thing a little more believable.

Saku walked back into the room, closing the door behind her and handing out to him a glass, "Drink up, we can't have your voice cracking on stage." She commented harshly.

Kyo took the glass of warm water from her, looking up at her as he took it, "I love your show of concern." He muttered sarcastically. He heard her groan quietly as she sat next to him, ignoring the urge to comment and just sipping the warm lemon water to sooth his throat. Once he was done Saku took it out of his hand and put it on the coffee table before getting up again and walking over to stand by James, looking down at her watch, "Two more minutes." She whispered.

"So let's get going and get it over with for the night."

All the members of the band nodded and stood up, meeting in the middle of the room with their own instruments, "Good luck everyone." Danny said. All the members nodded towards each other and walked out of the room.

**A/N: Another chapter even though I only got one review. I'm not sure when I'll update again at this rate so I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Review if you want another chapter, its all up to you now. Take care everyone!**


	7. Does It Hurt?

_**Chapter 7**_

Once their performance was done four of the band members, Danny, James and Kyoshi walked off stage exhaustedly, down the hall and into the back room after their two hour show they had just put on, finally feeling the real strain. Sakura was just as tired but had jumped off stage and walked to the front table to get Kai and Tala before picking up a strong drink that the bartender had ready waiting for her.

The three walked down the hall in silence, Kai farthest behind as always. Saku opened the door slowly, then stepping inside and walking to the other side of the room without stepping on Kyoshi who was sprawled on the ground. Kai and Tala stopped in their tracks once they reached the door, Tala's hand on the door frame as he stared on confusedly at the collapsed member of the group. They both watched as James fell back onto the sofa, lying down comfortably while Danny lifted Kyoshi's head slightly and put a cloth underneath before walking over to the sofa and sitting back.

Saku stopped from sipping her drink and locked eyes with Tala's slightly worried ones, "This is what a band is like after a good performance." She commented briefly.

"Yeah, the more exhausted you are after the better the show must have been." Kyoshi said from the ground, pulling the cloth from under his head and placing it over his face.

'_At least he's conscious.' _Tala thought, sounding a little relieved even in his own head.

"That sounds about right. All the singers that died on stage gave the audience a _killer_ performance." Kai said sarcastically.

Saku faked the sarcasm with him and continued with it, "I know right? If I have to die soon I hope it's like that."

Kyoshi moved the cloth off his face and glared across the room at Sakura, her just giving him a look that asked 'what?' and a non-verbal reply was quickly sent back to her, one that wasn't readable amongst the rest of those in the room.

"Do we know you two?" Danny asked suddenly, realization suddenly dawning on him.

"We're with them." Kai replied, jerking his thumb over at Saku in the corner.

Danny looked over at Saku questioningly, looking for some back up on the boy's excuse. Sakura sighed and nodded, "They are." She reassured monotonously. She got another nod from Danny before he went back to relaxing his head against the back of the sofa, Sakura placing her glass on the table before sliding down against the wall to the ground. "Take a seat somewhere; we'll leave once everyone is okay to." She said, looking over sharply at Kai and Tala.

Tala glanced over at Kai, a little confusedly as he looked on questioningly. The Bladebreakers team captain shrugged slightly, moved out of the doorway and closed it behind him before walking to the side of the room and sat down against the wall. Tala remained standing by the door, looking around at all the people in the room, each one even more different then the last.

"Oi! Didn't you hear me? I understand you might enjoy standing but you're going to get tired like that." Sakura spoke loudly, making her band mates flinch from the sharp voice that cut through the air, while that same voice made him shoot out of his thoughts again.

Tala looked over at her, shaking his head slightly before sitting on the floor by the door. He sat there quietly listening to Danny and James argue about who's turn it was to drive home while in his head he was commenting on how neither of them looked like they should be driving. Danny's shaggy black hair fell in front of his face mostly by now, parts of it sticking to his forehead and cheeks with sweat.

When Tala looked up at the group again the two males in question where hauling themselves off their leisurely positions and put together their things to leave. He had spaced out for too long to figure out who was going to be doing the driving but he really couldn't be bothered at the time to figure it out. Following a few more minutes of silence aside from the few words Danny exchanged with Kyoshi and Sakura before they left the other four alone.

Once Danny and James left Kyoshi attempted to get off the ground slowly, scooting over to the sofa and lying down over there, "Saku…be a good hostess and get those two something to drink would you?"

The dark-haired girl groaned slightly and stood up, pulling her wallet out of her back pocket and tossing Kai her membership card of the bar, "Go get yourselves something, telling him to put it on my tab while you're at it."

Kai caught the card in a second and tossed it back in one movement, "We don't need something to drink."

Tala sat there in silence, resting his head back against the wall as he sometimes ran his fingers through his red hair. He was just as tired as the band now. He'd spent the whole day awake talking to Kai or just relaxing on the sofa trying to ignore the excessive heat that plagued the whole country at the time. He really couldn't help but feel drained and distracted by the heat; his body just wasn't used to such weather conditions.

"You're speaking for yourself and forgetting about your friend over there, the guy is spacing out too much." Sakura walked over and knelt down in front of Tala, startling him at first.

Tala shook his head quickly in a protest, "No. I'm fine." He said quickly.

Saku gave a shrug and uncaring look before standing up, "Suite yourself." She fell back onto the sofa Kyoshi had been sitting on earlier, Tala finally taking in the fact that Kyoshi was no longer present in the room.

Tala looked over at Kai and whispered quietly the question on his mind, "Where'd Kyoshi go?"

Kai's eyebrows furrowed slightly with confusion, wondering aimlessly why his friend hadn't noticed the boy leaving, "He went out back to smoke." He answered quietly anyway.

"You're acting even more spacey than Kyoshi." Saku said coldly. This was her character, serious tough love. No one really knew whether or not she cared when she said such things or if she was just in a bad mood or something but when she spoke it was always blank, giving them no reassuring answer. "Go get him something to drink." She ordered Kai coldly.

Kai nodded, quickly stood up and walked out of the room in a hurry to get his friend something to drink. He walked up to the bar's counter, ordering a tall glass of water. He waited for it by looking around the club, noting that people were already on their way out, who could blame them? The entertainment was exhausted and had left and it was almost one-thirty in the morning. He picked up the glass once it hit the counter, tossing the money onto the wooden bar and walked back off in the direction of the small long corridor. Surprising him, Tala was running down the hall and had grabbed his arm as he passed, "Get rid of the drink we have to go." He heard the red-head say quickly in a whisper.

The older Russian blader dumped the glass onto a table and let himself be dragged out the door before jerking Tala back and stopping to question him, "What happened?" he asked, gripping onto the red-heads soldiers brutally.

Tala took a deep breath, effecting to calm himself down to speak. He took one more deep breath, grabbing Kai's shoulders and pushing against him slightly as he tried to regain his balance from the sudden stop, "There where gunshots in the alley, Sakura thinks Hana went after Kyoshi so she told me to run and wait for her by her car."

Kai nodded once hearing the explanation, grabbing Tala's arm, "Lead the way then." He said quickly.

Tala nodded, grabbed Kai's arm and ran down the street to the car park where Saku had said it was. The whole time he ran he could hear Kai close behind who had made him let go of him. He didn't mind that but he was glad that Kai was at least giving him the chance of doing things the way he wanted to for once. The two arrived at the car park, both sighing heavily as they stood at the entrance. The car park looked like it was miles long, filled with cars of all kinds in lanes for as far as they could see. "How do we find it? There's got to be at least ten black sports cars in here." Tala was out of ideas at this point.

The eldest Russian pried the electric key out of the other boy's hand, then walking over to the stairs that where in the corner by a building. Tala walked up beside him as Kai fumbled with the key and hit the button to open the car, looking out over at the lot of cars. One car in particular in the middle of the lot lit up and obviously opened; singling out that that was the car they were looking for. The red-head smiled over at Kai, silently praising the boy as the two walked back down the steps and to the car. The two slid into the back seat of the car, locking it once they got inside to wait for Kyoshi and Sakura. "Kai…you think they're alright?" Tala asked. The boy was resting his forehead against the back of the front seat, his forearms pressed tightly against his slender stomach as he stared into the black leather.

Kai exhaled heavily and sat back comfortably, staring at the grey covered ceiling of the car, "They know what they're doing." He stated coldly.

A sudden pang of fear ran through Tala's body, he was worried…about absolute strangers, "That's not what I asked you." He said.

Kai didn't know how to answer his friend anymore these days. When Tala had Boris' implants in his brain, Kai could easily talk to Tala because the two where always thinking on the same level and from the same point of view but now that they were out Tala didn't know his own personality and he was constantly asking Kai questions that he wasn't sure how to answer properly. He thought for a moment and tried to come up with the best reply, one that sounded comforting but one that didn't sound like a complete lie, "They're probably fine." Was all he could come up with.

A knock was heard on the glass window of the back seat, startling Tala as he hurried and looked out the window, seeing Saku standing there panting heavily and mouthing for them to open the door. They did so and Saku jumped into the front seat, snatching the key out of Kai's outstretched hand. She started the car and exited the parking lot in a hurry, "You two are alright?" she asked them, glancing up to see their reflections in the mirror.

"We're alive. Where's Kyoshi?" Tala came up with the quickest answer to her question just so he could ask his own even quicker, just a little bit of worry evident in his voice, not wanting to make any of his concern obvious to the girl.

"He ran off after the shooter, I'm going after him but he can take care of himself, he's fine." The car came to a sudden stop about two minutes later and Sakura got out of the car. She turned back quickly to the open door and peered in again, her hands gripping the door, "Wait here, alright?" she asked hurriedly, in need of some form of reassurance from the two 'trouble makers' as she'd so nicely put it in her mind. She heard two more shots coming from inside a nearby building and she just shouted another "Wait here." Before slamming the door shut and running down the street, away from the other two.

Tala looked on worriedly out of the window, his expression speaking thousands about the way he was feeling about the situation. "Tala don't worry." Kai said, crossing his arms and sitting back.

The red-head's anger grew slightly and he looked over at Kai out of the corner of his eye, gritting his teeth and replying, "I didn't think worry was controllable."

"Well it is." Kai said angrily, "I manage to stop worrying." He added. The younger Russian forced open the door quickly and jumped out; slamming the door tightly before running off in the same direction that he had seen Sakura run in. Kai shook his head rapidly, getting out of the car and following close behind Tala to keep the boy out of trouble. The two stopped in front of a building that was still being constructed, the whole thing dark on the inside once you looked through all the stone slabs and white dust clouds. Kai looked over at Tala, seeing a bit of uncertainty on his face, "You're sure this is where she ran to?" he asked quickly.

Two shots sounded through the air and Tala glared at Kai quickly, "I'm pretty sure." He replied.

The younger boy was on his way to run inside the abandoned building when Kai grabbed onto his arm and pulled him back again. He gave the younger boy a sharp warning look, one slightly tainted with concern as he spoke, "Don't be reckless, you have to be careful." He reminded him.

Tala smiled and nodded towards his friend, glad that Kai was able to feel a bit of fear and concern once in a while, especially for him. The two ran inside, stopping to move more carefully once Kai had almost tripped over some broken slabs. The two where drawn faster to the area when more sounds of gunshots began echoing through the clouded air. When walking on the two saw some light illuminating a room on the far end of the broken building and a form slowly walked out in a hurried but steady pace, always looking behind her at the lit entrance.

The skinny form belonged to none other person than Sakura who's eyes instantly fell widened when she saw the two there. She ran up in front of them, grabbing Tala's shoulder quickly, glaring at both of them, "What the hell are you two doing over here?" she tried hard to keep her voice low through her anger and frustration but didn't succeed all too much. Suddenly five shots where fired, one after another before an almost scream was let out by Kyoshi in the room Sakura had exited from a moment before. The two boys with Sakura where alarmed by the sound and both stepped forward quickly to walk into the room but Saku held them both back, "Let's go." She said quickly, turning them round and pushing them forward.

"You can't just leave him." Kai turned back around, yelling at Sakura.

Tala turned round and glared at her, at the same time some disbelief being evident in his blue eyes, refusing to believe that Sakura was just willing to leave Kyoshi behind like that. "What if he's hurt?" He asked suddenly.

Sakura's eyes blared with angry fire, gritting her teeth and replying, "He'll be fine, keep moving."

Kai shook his head and muttered, "You're brutal."

Tala shook his head too, pushed past Saku and ran straight past her and into the room she'd just exited. He was able to hear Kai running up behind him and Saku calling them to stop but it was too late and the teenagers had arrived in the room. Tala was the first to see it, his eyes widening and his mouth gaping open in shock upon seeing it. Kai's appearance was just about the same, the only difference being that he wasn't as disgusted as Tala was who turned away for a moment from the sight.

Kyoshi was holding a man up against a wall by his shoulders, feasting on his neck with the blood dripping down the body while the man squirmed and gripped the stone wall as he tried not to cry out in pain. He was almost done but then Kyoshi heard the footsteps behind him and a light banging against the wall. He finished up quicker and turned round quickly, letting the body drop to the ground with a sickening thud. His mouth was kept slightly open and blood curled over at the corner of his mouth and sliding onto his chin. Upon seeing Kai and Tala staring at him he felt terrible, even ashamed and just to the point where he wanted to crawl into a hole and die a quiet and quick death.

Kai and Tala glanced at each other, both of them finally taking in each others amazement before both turned back to Sakura. The girl had her hands up against a powdered white stone wall, gently banging her head against the wall with frustration.

_**---An Hour Later---**_

Kai and Tala still couldn't shrug off the picture of all they had seen earlier, both still not being able to take it in. "You really need to rewind and repeat all this again." Kai told Sakura, watching as she sat down on the arm of the sofa.

Sakura sighed, shook her head and rubbed her temples, "What exactly is there to explain? He's a vampire, that's it."

"You should have told us earlier." Tala stated coldly.

Saku rolled her eyes at that comment, "Right. 'Hey, I'm Sakura, an assassin and that's Kyoshi, a real vampire.' Somehow I don't think that would have worked." She said bitterly, glaring daggers at the two.

"I still don't get it." Kai muttered.

"Don't you know what a vampire is?" Sakura asked.

Kai shouted, "Of course I do!"

"Then what is there not to get?"

Tala put a hand on Kai's shoulder, keeping him from lashing out again, "How did it happen?" he spoke for his friend.

Saku sat forward, resting her hands on her knees, "That's not in my place to say any of that, you can maybe ask him yourself later if you like but what I can tell you, or more like, what I can _assure_ you is that he doesn't hurt innocent people. He never takes a person's life unless the person is either evil or on the brink of death."

Kai began to protest, shaking his head and standing up, "That's not even human. How would he manage living like that if he only drank the blood of those that where evil or dieing? He wouldn't manage."

"He starves for most of the time. I'm a constant blood donor for him to survive and I do it willingly. If it were up to him, he would have killed himself a long time ago because he hates living like a vampire but he's doing it for me and to be able to help people like you." Sakura continued to explain, even though a part of her knew that a lot more questioning and distrust was going to follow all her words.

Kai sat back down and turned to Tala. A look on the boy's face said that he wanted the chance to say something and Kai gave him the opportunity to do so, clearing his mind for a moment from all the anger to be able to listen to his friend. "He hasn't hurt us so far, Kai. He's harmless. We thought Sakura was always the one we should be more wary of, not Kyoshi so we shouldn't change our opinion of him until there's something we should actually worry about."

"Being a vampire isn't enough?" Kai asked him quietly.

Tala softened but gave Kai an annoyed look just for the comment, "He hasn't hurt us yet has he?"

"No but he could."

"But he hasn't so for now, my opinion of him is remaining the same." Tala said deciding.

"Kai…" Sakura began, sounding sincere and kind suddenly and softened up a bit as Kai looked over at her, "I know you're concerned for your own safety and your friend's but Kyoshi is one of the kindest people you will ever meet and won't come close to hurting anyone. The guy is in his room, humiliated you saw him acting like that, the last thing he needs is you not trusting him because of it. He didn't want to tell you and didn't let me tell you because he wants to try to live a life away from being a vampire. The problem is that it's hard to separate yourself from what's been put into your blood." She explained with a sense of kindness and understanding in her voice, the most they've seen of her ever since they'd met her. Her voice was tinted with just a bit of anger though; probably anger for having the one she loved alone and upset and all Kai could do was judge about it.

Kai looked over at Tala, a longing in Tala's blue eyes awaking something in him that made him want to give Kyoshi some other chance and not to change anything. The older Russian looked back over at Sakura and nodded slowly, taking in some acceptance on the subject at hand.

Sakura smiled for only a second, it flashed onto her face and disappeared again and she nodded curtly, "I'll be back soon." She got up and left the room, walking into Kyoshi's room. The boy wasn't there, surprising her a little since he would usually be lying on his bed when he was upset about something. She walked back into the hall, turning round the corner and finding Kyoshi out on the fire escape by himself. She slid open the window and stepped outside, standing behind Kyoshi who was sitting cross-legged on the escape with a mug of hot coffee gripped tightly in his hands. He looked up at her once he heard her come outside behind him; he smiled gently before turning back to the scenery of the city.

She sat down beside him, staring out at the city with him. She looked at him out of the corner of his eye, "Shinpai shinaide." **("Don't worry.") **she turned back to looking away from him, feeling his eyes on her again.

Kyoshi had a childish look of confusion on his face again, his eyes holding questions, "E?" **("Sorry?") **

Saku looked over at him again, her eyes holding no emotion as she spoke, "Shinpai shinaide, maa ii deshou." **("Don't worry, its okay.")**

Kyoshi turned his head away from her, looking up at the sky, "Ah." He whispered. He rested back slowly against the wall, his spine touching the harsh stone wall through his thin clothing which felt uncomfortable. He stared up into space absent mindedly, he soon felt Sakura crawling over to him. She slowly snaked her arms around his torso, smiling gently into his neck before giving the soft pale skin of his neck a gentle kiss, doing the same on the corner of his mouth. She got off the ground soon after that small action of comfort and jumped back inside the house without another word.

Kyo sighed sadly, tears stinging his eyes enough to blur his vision of the moon and sky that illuminated the sky above him. He finished sipping his coffee, coming to the end of the mug when he decided he should be getting back inside. He silently hoped that Kai and Tala were already in bed, or at least not in the apartment at all so he could get to his room without seeing them. He snuck back into the house, creeping quietly down the hall and stepping into his bedroom. He placed the empty mug down on his bedside table, refusing to go into the kitchen that night just in case someone was in there. He sat down in the middle of his bed, crossing his legs and taking deep breaths.

He heard footsteps pass by his bedroom but he just ignored them as best he could until someone stopped in his doorway where he could feel someone's gaze on him. He opened his eyes quickly upon hearing the person stop and stand there opposite him. Tala stood there quietly, his hand resting against the entrance. Kyoshi felt some heat rising in his cheeks, feeling embarrassed again.

Tala remained where he was; he had promised Kai he wasn't going to get within a metre of Kyoshi just in case something happened so he stayed in the doorway where he knew he was safe. "We're both sorry." He said honestly.

Confusion shone onto Kyoshi's face, making him choke on his own breath slightly which resulted in a small cough. Once it cleared he looked up shyly, "What for?" he stammered.

The red-head was slightly surprised that Kyoshi didn't know what he was talking about, after all, it did seem to have made a large impact on Kyoshi's strength and pride but he opted on answering anyway, "For judging you about this whole vampire situation. Nothing's changed."

Kyoshi couldn't help but smile slightly, nodding and speaking a quiet, "Thank you."

"I'll see you in the morning then." Tala added quietly, nodding.

Kyo got off his bed and was about to walk past Tala to leave his room, "Yeah, good night."

"You're going out?" Tala asked quickly, watching the boy walk into the living room.

Kyoshi slid his gun off the table; he'd placed it there once he'd gotten into the apartment, thinking that after Kai and Tala had found out what he was they wouldn't even trust him with his own gun anymore. He put it in his back pocket while looking up at Kai, "Yeah." He replied quickly.

"Isn't the sun coming up soon?"

Kyo turned to the window that was behind him by the sofa, he turned back to Tala before walking over the door, answering casually, "It's got another four hours. I won't be out long. Good night." He left quickly after his final good night, not making any more eye contact with the boy. The strange bit of it all was his mood swings within the past few hours. He thought about each phase of his emotions through the whole day as he walked on for a few minutes, a destination planted so firmly in his mind he didn't need to watch where he was going.

The emotions ran through out the whole day, from the moment he stepped out of his bedroom and went into the kitchen to make his coffee. He hadn't taken Kai and Tala's first distrust personally as he'd said but when he got into Saku's bedroom to relax so much had begun flooding into his mind he was too week to keep up with it all at once. He could remember his feelings of the moment so clearly, he felt them all over again, the light stinging in his eyes, the quick breaking of his heart, the throbbing in his head, he felt it all over again, just like he when he was lying on the bed.

Saku had whispered 'let me see…' in his ear in Japanese, he knew she'd be able to see so close to his soul he'd be able to feel her there and he didn't want that. He wanted to hold her off from knowing his emotional imbalance for as long as he could, sooner or later he knew she was going to get a hold of him, he just thought he should at least hold it off for as long as he could.

All he remembered next about that part of the day was her trying to comfort him, he was in her arms, laying close to her again and he couldn't have felt safer but he'd completely lost his voice and chance of speaking and she left him alone again. Out of the whole afternoon that was as far as he remembered, knowing that when he got to the bar he'd fallen asleep in the back room on the armchair. Saku had just woken him up at the best and worst time of his sleep, his own death. He'd woken up in one of the worst ways, being hit and jolted straight out of it. The worst way of waking up when you're dreaming about falling to the ground to your own death but the best time for waking up was just before you actually hit the ground in your sleep.

Tears were running from his eyes like streams, forming puddles at the collar of his red shirt. He picked up the pace when he felt the heartbreaking feelings increase more and more, putting a greater amount of pressure on his body. He arrived down by the beach, stepping off the stone and onto the soft dry sand. He looked behind him, looking up at the rocks, seeing the black railings at the very top shining in the moon light through his blurring vision.

He sat down on one of the large rocks, staring out at the sea as best he could through the tears that slipped off uncontrollably. He hated this for it to have to come to this point. He didn't want to be doing this but he was left with no other choice than to just sit there and let it all out peacefully.

The blood loss. He blamed the blood loss for everything that was happening to him. If he hadn't been turned into a vampire then he wouldn't have to live as some creature of the night that fed off people's lives. He didn't want to take the lives of other people but that didn't mean he wanted to die either. He was too…kind to suck someone's blood just so that he could live. To take someone's life for your own, killing something natural and beautiful so that he could live as a monster. All these thoughts, true thoughts, helped the sudden flow of the tears as he closed his eyes, listened to his own conscience and the sound of the sea against the shore in the background and the feeling of raindrops from the sky above him that fell gracefully onto his own body. The first bit of rain the country had had in months.

The boy was interrupted as he almost always was, his phone ringing and vibrating in his jeans pocket. He drew a sharp breath and held back the tears while he slipped his phone out of his pocket, almost choking on the salty air from the sudden air he'd taken in. He looked down at his phone, _'Saku, Calling' _written on the screen. He flipped it open quickly and placed it to his ear, then steadily spoke out into the empty surroundings, "Hello?"

"You can't sit out and cry in the rain all night." Saku said coldly on the other line.

Kyo refrained from sighing, otherwise she'd get more suspicious or he'd anger her and he didn't want either of those to happen, "I'm just out for a walk. I'll be back at home soon."

Saku exhaled, a small knocking sound being heard quietly over the phone, Kyoshi guessing that she was leaning against the wall or shelf somewhere. She took a quiet moment for herself and the boy was about to hang up on her due to the absence of her voice when she spoke again, "Kyo, you have no reason being out there. There's nothing there that you're not allowed or incapable of doing over here."

Kyoshi was a little taken aback by her words, moving his phone away from his ear and onto his lap for a moment. How many times had he heard her actually say that? He was sure that she knew he was breaking down, so why did she tell him to go home to do it? She hated it when he broke down at home because she took it upon herself to help comfort him but that wasn't her thing, she thought that she wasn't any good at it. By the time he lifted the phone to his ear again the line had gone dead completely. He slowly moved himself off the rock he'd been sitting on, his feet touching the damp sand again. He looked out over at the sea for one more minute before his shoes made footprints in the sand as he made his way back to the house slowly and calmly.

For minutes of walking he went back to bottling up his emotions as best he could so that he could avoid people staring at him on the street and he could at least go back home with a brave face to show Sakura he hadn't broken down. Sadly for that to be proven to her it would only be assuming that nothing bad happened when he got back to the house. He was on the brink of emotions, one slip up and he could lose it completely and he didn't want to in front of her. He knew her better to know that she wouldn't accept it; it was why he felt the need to say sorry after every single time he broke down.

She'd constantly repeat though that there was no need to apologize. Sakura was strict and reckless but she was far from being heartless, especially in such cases of emotional discomfort, most of all of someone she loved so much. He arrived to the front door of the house before he knew it, about to put the key in the lock when the door swung open suddenly. He looked down at Sakura who stared back at him a little sharply, softening up slightly once she'd seen it was only him, "I was just about to come and find you." She announced quietly.

"You hung up before I could tell you I was on my way back." Kyo said, the most perfect excuse he could come up with on such short notice.

Sakura nodded carefully in some understanding, opening the door wider for him to step back inside. He did so and walked into the living room, staring outside the window as he pulled off his open red shirt that had been clinging to his body from the rain water that had fallen on him while he was outside. He placed it on the sofa and moved over to the window. Sakura stood up beside him, handing him a black towel to dry himself off with.

He took a quick look at her features, seeing them as plain and stoic as always. He stepped back slightly so that he could pull off his white t-shirt without hitting her accidentally. In a slower movement as he kept his focus on the scene outside he took the towel from her and wiped at his chest and stomach slowly.

Sakura crossed her arms and looked out the window with him, "It looks like the rain stopped." She noted aloud. She saw Kyoshi nod in agreement and she quietly added, "Although I'm pretty sure it'll start again soon."

Kyoshi pushed open the curtains a little more and looked up at the sky properly, "I doubt it, the clouds are breaking up, there shouldn't be any more for days."

Saku smirked slightly, turning away and walking to the other side of the room and leaning back against the dressing table, "I know what rain I'm talking about, do you?" she asked.

The blonde looked at her suddenly, finally taking in what she'd said and understanding what she meant. The idea of the rain was never about the actual rain outside; she was referring to him crying. The heat of the country lasted as long as his blood withdrawal and emotional hiatus had gone on for and the rain began just as he'd finally broken down. Down to every second of the timing, it was perfect. The boy sat down on the stool that was by the window, glancing back outside rather than look at Sakura for any longer.

Footsteps where heard coming down the hall and arrived at the second entrance to the living room, standing there and staring at the two that stared him down before Saku shot at him bitterly, "What?" she rudely asked Kai with a glare.

"I'm thirsty." He replied, trying to maintain his calmness.

"Help yourself to a drink." Sakura jerked her thumb over to the kitchen, Kai doing as he was asked to and disappeared into the kitchen. Saku took the moment to walk up to the middle of the room, sitting carefully on the wooden coffee table in the centre of her living room. Her eyes remained fixed onto the ground and remained quiet until Kai left the kitchen with a glass of water and walked down the hall back to the bedroom he shared with his friend.

Saku turned from looking down the hall back to her fiancé, smiling faintly at him with a bit of kindness in it, "You have some time to open up. I know I don't permit it usually but there's nothing wrong with doing it when you need to." She explained gently.

Kyo gave her a blank look, almost uncaring and not understanding, "So what do you expect me to do?" he asked her.

The girl shrugged slightly, her hands still gripping the table, "You had no problem crying outside in the rain, it should be easier to cry in here, all you have to do is look around and remember." Kyo knew what she was implying, he was meant to take that as an order or as a guide on how things where meant to plan out but he couldn't allow himself to truly look at the room. Looking at a room is seeing the walls, the furniture and the decorations. _Truly_ looking into a room meant going deeper than that, looking into the memories and history of the room and taking it in and letting it take you over completely. "Look." She ordered again.

She always had this kind of power over him. She could always intimidate him, someway or another and not once in a while, almost all the time. It wasn't that he didn't know how to be in control, it was just that what she said was always to do him some good and despite his shyness he was a stubborn person and he needed someone who could intimidate him into what he needed to do. Although, just the sound of her voice was enough for him to get that sinking and breaking feeling in his heart again and didn't even need to look up at the room.

Before he even knew it he was already choking on his own breath again, being torn apart between letting go and holding it back. You'd think that by now he would've learnt that there was no point in trying to hold anything else back because it would just slip but nothing stopped him from trying his best. He rested his elbows on his knees, one hand against his forehead to support his head as he got caught up in the choking and sobbing all over again. He ran his fingers through his hair but found his head was too heavy and moved back to using his hand for support, one hand on the side of the stool to keep him up right, the other supporting his throbbing skull. His face contorted to one of pain, discomfort, sadness and some anger all at once, those being the only emotions that where even slightly deciphered.

The raven-haired girl continued to watch from the coffee table, placing her hands to the back of the table and leaning back on them slightly. She didn't move, even flinch after that, just watching from that position like it was none of her business to do anything for him at the time. It wasn't until she began hearing cracking sounds in the boys sobs that it began to worry her even slightly, just making her uncomfortable in just watching him like that. Cold, scared, alone, crying, hurt, pained, depressed, a heartbreaking sight. Just one of those views that would make even the coldest of people feel something in their hearts for the being that was being shattered. The boy was always in so much control over what happened to him, what happened to his emotions and his body but it was times like these where he lost all that control that he'd strived for over the years of being human and a vampire.

Saku slowly got up, walking up to him and standing in front of him but he was obviously too caught up in himself to even remember she was in there with him. Her left hand by her side moved vaguely before she placed it on his that was holding onto the stool. The touch was a rough one initially, coming from the years of work she'd done and gun handling but the skin didn't matter because in seconds it softened up and became kinder, making it feel warmer. Holding onto the hand properly she lifted his off the stool, his arms muscles tensing up a lot and trying to grab on tighter to the hand that flew away from his head and onto her hand to keep him from falling.

He never had to worry though, she assured him of that by only standing in front of him. She took apart both his hands off hers, placing both of his around her waist before snaking her arms around his neck and pulling him closer to her shoulder. He peered over her shoulder, his cheek against hers as his crying only got worse with the gentle and warm embrace he felt he was in, slowly sliding his hands higher up her back. His emotions where only getting worse by the second, but he grew even more scared of having Sakura so close when he was like this. He was so scared that he was disappointing her that he didn't know what to do with himself but the little soothing sounds she was making and the caressing of his hair was enough to keep him going until he knew he was out right exhausted.

Sakura didn't dare say a word while all this was going on with him, just pulling him closer to her so he could rest against her with comfort and ease. She just randomly looked around the room, sometimes looking out the window or at the ceiling but after a while looking at him and his visible run of emotions was more important to her. The on pour of emotions was something almost new for her to see coming from him, particularly because she was hardly ever around when these kinds of things happened. Not even sure if it ever happened this badly. The girl continued running her fingers through the boy's blonde strands of hair, feeling the soft strands between her fingers as she pulled his head closer to her shoulder for comfort.

The two didn't know how long they were there for, or how long they would remain in that same position for but neither of them opted to move enough to check for the time. Kyoshi was preoccupied with dealing with his emotions, while Sakura was too distracted by the boy's sobs to even bother thinking about how long they'd be like that for. The whole time, Kyoshi knew that eyes where on him but was choking on his own sobs too much to be able to speak out and protest against being watched. He was currently dealing with the discomfort of being so close to Sakura, his cheek against the side of her neck.

Down the hall, Kai and Tala had heard the beginning of sobs, as Kai hadn't closed the door behind him when he got back with his drink. They got out of the room they had been sharing and peered down the hall to try to hear any words that accompanied the cries that were heard but no words came, just sobs and that was it. The two moved more down the hall to see what exactly it was that was happening and saw the sight of the couple huddled together.

Sakura's hand guided Kyoshi's head closer to her shoulder, letting him bury his face in the side of her neck, an action that made the two bladers give everything some more thought. They figured Sakura really must have a serious amount of hope and trust in Kyoshi for making such an action. How many people do you know wouldn't mind having a vampires mouth less than inch away from their neck? You don't need to be a rocket scientist to answer a question like that because everyone would come up with the correct answer of 'None'. Which obviously reflected Sakura's trust in Kyo for allowing him that close to her neck; she displayed her large amount of trust in him with one bold action. If a pure blooded mortal had so much loving faith in something that could take her life, then there must be some sort of logical explanation behind it. The only one that made any sense would have been this…Kyoshi was in no way dangerous!

Both watched the two with some intent, coming to realization that the two hadn't had any plans of moving any time soon so quietly made their way back to their bedroom. "Do you really think he's that dangerous?" Tala asked quietly.

Kai had his eyes fixed onto the ground as leaned back against the door, closing it soundly behind him as he'd entered the room, "He seems…harmless." He whispered, more to himself than the other.

The younger blader sat back onto the bed and looked up at his friend, "Yeah, that's what I was thinking." He whispered back. He waited another moment, watching Kai lie down in bed and stare up at the ceiling blankly. "He looked really hurt. What do you think was wrong with him?"

Kai shrugged, being unsure himself at the time, "Possibly…Sakura was being honest about him hating his life as a vampire."

Tala turned over onto his stomach on the bed, and looking at the wall a little disappointedly, "I don't see what good could possibly come out of living as a vampire."

"Sakura said he's living for her and for helping other people but still, that doesn't sound like a good enough reason to live a life that makes him miserable."

"He must really love her to be living like this." Tala whispered.

Kai obviously had to disagree though, "I think he's still here for a bigger reason."

Tala sighed and shook his head, a small smile on his face, "Love is never enough for you is it?"

Kai shook his head numbly, "No, it isn't."

The red-head turned over onto his back, resting his head onto the soft pillow and staring at the ceiling like his friend was, "I'll bet you anything that its for love."

"I'll bet its something bigger than that."

**A/N: Another chapter for you all. Hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review. **


	8. When It Can't Be Helped

_**Chapter 8**_

**---Next Morning---**

Kai quietly stepped out of the bedroom, closing the door behind him as quietly as he possibly could so as not to wake Tala up from his well-deserved sleep. The curtains of the halls window were drawn shut and Kai finally understood why they were like that every morning. Even though the whole hallway was dark, Kai could see a dim light coming from Kyoshi's bedroom, one a little surprising considering he didn't expect them to be up, it being only 6am. The boy silently crept down the hall, standing by the side and slowly peering into Kyoshi's bedroom.

Kyoshi lay on his back on his leather bed, his bare chest gently raising and falling with every deep breath he took. The boy seemed to still be sound asleep, as anyone would expect him to be after all the crying he had done. Tear streaks where practically painted on the pale boy's face but now he could be said to look a lot more peaceful then he was pained as he had been the night before. Both his hands where by his sides, one hand being constantly in Sakura's grasp.

The girl was sitting up on her side, being supported by her elbow as she continued to watch him sleep. She heard a creeping sound outside the door and glanced over in Kai's direction, catching sight of the intruder. She glared at him lightly through her exhausted vision that could be seen in her grey eyes.

Kai tried to figure out something kind to ask as a way to ease the girl's anger, "Is he okay?" he asked in a whispered tone.

Saku allowed the little subject change and nodded vaguely, then lifting the hand she was leaning back on and waved him off. Gladly, Kai walked quickly out of Sakura's view and walked briskly to the kitchen. Saku glanced back over to Kyoshi, taking in his features once more before slowly letting go of his hand and getting out of bed. "Where are you going?" she was asked just as she was leaving the room.

She looked back at Kyoshi, he'd opened his eyes and looked over at the exit, looking at her with sleepiness and hurt in his eyes. She walked over to his side of the bed, crawling just over him, her hand on his cheek as she give him a quick and simple kiss on his almost numb lips. "I'm just going to get some coffee, get back to sleep." She whispered. She watched as Kyo closed his eyes again and shifted slightly on his back into a more comfortable position then she got up and left the room. The girl stepped into the kitchen where Kai was making himself some coffee; he'd instantly looked over at her once she'd stepped inside, "Morning." She said monotonously, sliding a mug off a shelf.

The exhaustion in her voice surprised Kai, making his eyebrows furrow in some confusion, "Did you sleep at all?" he asked.

"No." Sakura said plainly.

Kai turned back to the boiling water quickly and poured some out into the two mugs that where set out onto the counter, "At least you're honest." He commented with a smirk.

"When you're in a business like mine, you have to be honest." Sakura whispered, sliding her coffee cup into her hand. She sipped at the coffee quietly, moving the mug away from her lips and staring at the ceiling as she spoke again suddenly, "Last night…you were watching, weren't you?"

"We just heard…"

Sakura shook her head and looked at him, "You didn't 'just hear'. Kyoshi told me he saw you watching but frankly, neither of us care that you saw but don't you dare hold anything like that against him."

Kai felt, to some degree, hurt by what she said, the idea of her expecting him to do something like that to a person being somewhat surprising, "We won't. It wasn't our intention; we just wanted to see what was happening. Once we saw him crying and you hugging him we went back to the bedroom and that was it."

Sakura groaned, finding no other reason to protest against Kai so she just went back to sipping her coffee in an uncaring manner.

"So…what's wrong with him?"

Saku turned back to him and smirked, "You're straightforward, that's good." She whispered. She placed her mug down onto the counter, bracing herself before jumping back onto the surface and sitting up on the counter. She remained quiet for another moment, keeping her eyes on the ground while speaking, "Living like a vampire…isn't his choice, its been forced onto him and now that he's here the way he is, he's got responsibilities. His life has stresses that we don't even think about; you think he really wants to be inside all the time?"

Kai shook his head a bit, looking up at her, "All that couldn't have possibly come up just because of that." He commented.

Sakura smirked at his comment and jumped off the counter, the conversation being short lived and spoke again, "Of course not, it comes from a lot more than just that but I obviously don't have the authority to tell you these kinds of things." The girl was close to exiting the kitchen but stopped once she reached the doorway, looking back at him with a bit of softening of her features, "If you want to know things about him, then just get to know him, I can assure you that you won't regret it." The girl left a second later, probably to stay with Kyoshi again and cheer him up for a while.

**---Later- 9am--- **

Tala had just woken up a few minutes earlier and gotten dressed and was currently walking down the hall with Kai when the two saw Sakura seated on the ground in Kyoshi's bedroom, the owner of the room being absent. Kai reversed and stood in the doorway, "Where's Kyoshi?" He asked quietly.

Sakura was shocked out of her own thoughts at the sound of his voice, looking up at him quickly. She finally factored in the actual question that had been asked of her, taking a second to answer, "He's in the basement." She said.

Kai nodded slightly and walked off again, leaving Sakura again but this time, a little more frustrated. She'd spent about an hour trying to forget about him so that she could do her work without having the urge to check on him and when she'd finally forgotten Kai walked in and brought up her worries again. It had been long over two hours since Kyoshi had disappeared but considering the sun light was bright outside it meant that he was definitely still in the house. She knew that she shouldn't be snooping around, even if it was her own house but she was still too afraid to go down there when she knew he'd want to be alone for a while.

Well, to be truthful regarding the situation, Kyoshi didn't _really_ want to be alone at a time like this. Sakura had just insisted that he had some time to himself to relax, since he clearly hadn't had times like those lately. It was so hard for them to leave each other alone, the two where always so inseparable. Saku slowly pushed herself off the ground, wavering on her feet at first before walking slowly down the hall. She arrived to a small door that was across from her bedroom, opening it quietly then carefully walking down the wooden staircase.

From the top of the stairs anyone would already be able to hear the sound of a piano being played, a soft, sweet but sad melody. Saku arrived at the bottom of the stairs, walking over to where the boy was at the piano. The boy's eyes were practically glazed over as they followed his hands over each of the black and white keys.

The girl's raven hair trailed behind her as she unhurriedly walked behind Kyoshi. She lowered herself slightly, placing her arms over his, her chest against his back as she placed her hands over his as he played. Her mouth gently rested on his cheek, laying soft kisses there once in a while before she turned back to her hands that moved with his. After another moment of watching their hands and listening to the sad tune her hands slowly pushed down on his, bringing his hands to a sudden and harsh stop, causing a heavy sound from the piano.

Kyo turned his head to the side, a silent question praying on his mind, one that was visible on his face. Saku sat down beside him at the piano, she turned her head to look at him and for a minute she gave him a sweet and honest smile. A smile from her was a lot when he didn't get it that often from her, it made him feel like he was worth the smile at least. The girl rested her forehead against his, still smiling before she gave him a small peck on the lips. He smiled back at her, he couldn't help it this time, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her close to him.

She smiled a little more contently, her ear against his chest as she listened to the sound of his steady heartbeat, feeling his fingers running through the ends of her black hair. She felt her fiancé's head rest on the top of her own, occasionally giving her a kiss on her hair or forehead. "It's been a while." She heard him whisper to her quietly.

His words made her laugh slightly, making her pull away and look up at him, "Yeah, it has. It still feels good doesn't it?" she asked, stroking his cheek.

Kyoshi nodded vaguely, smiling down at her with a bit of gentleness in his eyes, "And once Hana is gone it'll be so much better."

Saku's appearance turned a little saddened as she continued to look at him, "I'm sorry we postponed things for so long, it's just that the last thing I want is Hana showing up at our wedding." She apologized sweetly.

Kyo couldn't resist laughing again, kissing her softly and quickly, "I completely understand. She's got some serious attitude problems these days, having that at a wedding wouldn't work out too well."

The girl stood up again, stepping past Kyo and facing the stairs so he didn't see her continuous amusement, "Finally we agree on something big, I don't think we have in a while." She told him.

The boy in the room nodded slightly, not turning to look back at her, "I'll be upstairs soon."

"Take your time." The girl raced back up the stairs, stopping at the top before she closed the door when she heard him playing the soft tune on the piano again. The tune wasn't as sad as the previous one, this one having a more…hopeful sound to it if that were possible. She shook her head of all her thoughts, remembering that in a way she was eavesdropping on something that was meant to be private and decided to quietly close the door and walk back to Kyo's bedroom. She lay back onto the bed, her hands behind her head as she stared up at the ceiling as her mind wandered to something she could actually do for the morning. She couldn't very well ditch Kyoshi when she wasn't sure how he was but more importantly she couldn't leave the emotional wreck in charge of two teenage boys.

Her trains of thoughts where once again interrupted, this time by a small knock on the stone doorframe. She lifted her head slightly in an attempt to see who was there, Tala standing in the doorway with questioning eyes, "Can I talk to you?" he asked.

Saku sighed quietly and dragged a pillow from by her side and propping it under her head, replying at the same time, "I don't see any reason why you can't." She gestured to the chair that wasn't far from the bed, Tala instantly taking the hint and sitting down there. "What do you want to talk about?" she swung her legs off the side off the bed, resting her forearms on her legs against her stomach and looked on blankly at him.

Tala shifted uncomfortably under her stare, she really was one to get straight to the point. "I still don't know what Hana wants from me, or why she does."

Sakura decided to keep her anger under control rather than just lash out at the boy for bringing that up again. She finally took in that the boy wanted a little more and considering she wanted to keep Tala and Kai on their side once they found out about Kyoshi she should be as decent towards them as she could. She hung her head for a moment before lifting it again to be able to look at him, "We really don't have a good explanation for everything Hana does or why she chooses the people she does but even if we did you'd probably be better off not knowing." She was really trying to pull off the kindest tone she could but being Sakura…to say the least it was a little difficult. She thought that already, there was something else she should add while she had the opportunity to actually speak civilly to him, "You and your friend need to trust us to do our jobs like we're meant to."

Tala sat up straight quickly, looking at her a little sternly, "We _do_ trust you." He shot at her quickly. He watched Saku raise an eyebrow at him inquisitively which made him soften up a little under that look, "Ok so I trust you, I don't know about Kai."

The girl smirked and nodded, "That's more like it but I still think you should have trusted me when I told you Kyoshi would be alright yesterday." She protested.

The red-head was close to laughing but replied anyway, "Then we wouldn't have found out about Kyoshi." He commented.

"Which would have made our lives much easier, if you ask me."

Tala nodded in agreement regarding the statement, after all she was probably right about it, Kyoshi wouldn't have had that emotional breakdown and Sakura wouldn't have had to help him deal with it if they had never found out. "Kai would have trusted you both a lot less if we hadn't though."

Slowly, Sakura reached her hand out to the bedside table and picking up her box of cigarettes. She pulled the cigarette out and tossed the box back onto the table as she thought a bit about his comment all the way into lighting it, "Yeah, you two are really different, how do you get along?"

"You're one to talk, what about you and Kyoshi?"

Saku glared at him almost childishly, "I asked you first." She said.

"We get along just because we've known each other and at least he has a solid personality, I don't." Tala sat back comfortably in the arm chair, replying and speaking as though he'd known the girl for a long time, finally forgetting the distance the two had between them.

Saku pulled the cigarette away to reply, "Well sometimes an unstable personality is good, you're a good example."

Tala opened his mouth slightly to speak but he went blank on a reply so opted the move the subject off himself, "Your turn to answer my question."

Saku turned and lay back against the pillows, staring at the ceiling with the cigarette balanced in her mouth, "Me and Kyoshi, right? We don't get a long sometimes, he's the sweet one out of the two of us clearly. We really put each other in our places, you know? We look after each other a lot, we always have and so we just grew on each other."

"But you're still so different." Tala pointed out again.

Sakura laughed at the way he'd said it, like he was trying to point out so much about the obvious. "I know we are, _he_ knows we are but you really can't help who you fall in love with. He's more like an angel, not a vampire. We're both amazingly stubborn, we need each other to remain in line and do what we're supposed to. I owe him my life for raising me the way he did."

The last bit of her explanation caught Tala's attention, how could Kyoshi have raised her? Didn't she have a family or something? He blinked rapidly at the train of thoughts, settling on bringing these questions to words, "He raised you? Don't you have parents?" Okay so the questions came out a little faster than he'd expected, thankfully not sounding desperate for answers or anything.

Saku looked over at him, a blank look on her face, one that wasn't cruel nor sweet either. She plucked the cigarette out of her mouth and put out into the ashtray, "That's a story for another time." She replied.

Tala nodded in understanding, standing up again and looking down at her, "Thanks. I should get back to Kai." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder towards the living room where Kai probably still was. He watched Saku nod in understanding and he walked out of the room in a hurry.

Saku laughed and slipped another cigarette out of the box, lighting it in a hurry as she lay properly on her back, "Was I actually that curious as a teenager?" she couldn't help the laughing this time, staring up at the ceiling with a content look on her face.

"You're still a teenager." Kyoshi walked into the bedroom, answering with some humor in his voice as he rushed to her side.

"Need I remind you I'm almost twenty?" Saku asked him sternly, raising an eyebrow at him.

"When you're actually twenty I'll give you credit for it but for now, you're nineteen." He took the cigarette out from between her two fingers and placed it to his own lips before sitting down on the bed.

Sakura sat up quickly, looking at him angrily and pulled the cigarette out of his mouth, "I believe this is mine." She glared at him before putting it into her own mouth.

"From my stash I'll bet." Kyo muttered angrily.

Sakura passed him the cigarette to him between her fingers, "Now my stash wouldn't really be a stash if I told you I had one."

Kyo continued to glare at her, taking the cigarette and putting it out in the ashtray with all the other buds. He turned back to her, at the same time wrapping his arms around her waist, "So how are those two?" he asked.

The younger girl sighed a bit and sat back, running her hands along the older boy's forearms, "They're not too bad. The youngest is actually acting like a decent human being but that other guy still gets on my nerves a bit."

"There are good reasons why he would but I'm sure you can handle him." Kyo leaned forward and gave Saku a kiss on the cheek, smirking at his own comment at the same time.

Sakura rested her chin onto Kyo's shoulder, giving him a few kisses along his cheek and neck as she resisted an answer or following comment to what he'd said. All she wanted was to forget about the 'annoying' teenagers that were in the other room, in on their house which she didn't really seem to appreciate. "Children are so adorable but then they grow up and end up like Kai and Tala." She whispered, laughing a bit.

Kyoshi resisted laughing and pushed Sakura back down onto her back, "They can't be that bad." He insisted, pushing her down by her shoulders a little more.

Sakura smirked, her smirk looking a little mischievous at the same time as she fought against Kyo's hold and sat up again, "I'm going out for a while soon so since you believe they're not so bad you can deal with them by yourself." She watched as his face fell a bit, making her smirk grow all the more into an amused smile. She reached forward, gave him a quick kiss on the corner of his mouth and got off the bed. She giggled victoriously as she exited the room and walked down the hall to her bedroom, the sound of her footsteps disappearing with distance.

Kyoshi shook his head, then got off the bed to make his own way out of the bedroom. He noted Kai and Tala where in the living room and to actually get to the kitchen he had to pass by them so he did so as he screamed in his mind for them not to notice him and speak to him. He'd entered the kitchen quickly but looking calm all the same, releasing a breath while thanking for his good fortune. Clearly he'd spoken and prayed too early because a second later Tala appeared in the doorway, greeting him in a quiet manner.

The Vampire clearly wasn't in the mood for greetings or chats but his visage hardly ever gave that off due to his usual calm and concentrated exterior.

Not many people could really see whether or not he was in the mood for a conversation or not, many of the times not even Sakura knew what to do. Sakura was one to listen to her own thoughts and opinions of things, which often clouded her sensitivity to knowing what the right thing to do was.

The frustrated vampire slowly turned to the door, smiling gently but a bit shyly at the same time at Tala, "Hey." He could barely hear his own voice, though he wasn't sure if that was because of his sore throat or faulty hearing from the loud music he was exposed to every night. He wasn't the type to just ditch Tala or anything of the sort so he was going to talk as kind as he could possibly sound and smile like he actually meant it.

"Sakura told me that you saw us last night…we told her we're sorry but I don't know if she told you."

Kyoshi nodded a little, careful not too much, "She did." He lied to him. He didn't need to be told that they were sorry, he knew they were, he could feel it the night before. "She told me that you were sorry, and it's nothing. I don't care about what you saw." Now the guy was lying all the way through, even though it wasn't evident enough for Tala to notice. To him, them seeing him killing someone by sucking their blood and even breaking down later did matter to him because he was ashamed of what he'd become.

Tala wasn't exactly naïve but he wasn't about to doubt Kyoshi's words at the time either. When you lived with and are best friends with someone like Kai, you tend to grow up believing that someone _is_ strong enough not to care about some uncomfortable things. He was surrounded by people that he expected to be strong emotionally. Kai, Kyoshi and Sakura where all those people who had that one thing in common, maybe not Kyoshi as much as the other two. "We just wanted to let you know that we're sorry, that's all." Tala seemed a little defendant at the time, speaking to Kyoshi with a bit more authority then he'd had in a while.

Kyoshi nodded, it was all he could really do at first since after all, he did understand how the other boy felt but for a moment, till he brought that into consideration, he wasn't able to speak so quickly. Once he felt his voice again he spoke quietly, "I know you're sorry, thanks but I don't need to be reminded of it right now." He seemed to disregard Tala suddenly, turning back to the counter to make himself some tea, clearly he needed to calm down and that was the only solution he could come up with under the pressure.

After only a minute of giving Tala his side and some silence he felt the teenager disappear, causing Kyoshi to slump slightly, to a certain degree feeling bad for what he did. Technically, it was nothing he did wrong right? Well he was sensitive, he hated doing all the things he did but all those things he grew up as a mortal not to do where the things that struck him down the most. For another time that morning he was shocked out of his thoughts, this time by the steam that blew out of the kettle and onto his hand which he'd accidentally left on top of it. He'd jerked his hand back, taking a look at it as it healed up in under a second, then Sakura walked in and brushed a hand along his back as she walked past him.

"Stop spacing out all the time, I called you twice." Sakura informed him quietly as she placed her mug in the sink.

Kyoshi shook his head a little of his lack of attention, then turning over to look at her as she seemed to be in a slight hurry to get somewhere, "Sorry."

Sakura smiled up at him a little as she wiped her hands with a towel, "It's alright." She stood up a little more and gave him a peck on the lips before walking out of the room quickly, throwing the towel over her shoulder as she exited which Kyoshi easily caught despite his split attention. He tossed the cloth back onto the table and walked after her out of the kitchen and into his bedroom, he watched for only a second as she stood in front of his mirror touching up her eyeliner before he looked around and asked her, "Where are those two?"

Without turning her attention from what she was doing, Sakura quietly answered, "I sent them home. This way you can have the house all to yourself this afternoon." She watched in the mirror as she saw Kyoshi's reflection while he sat down on the end of his bed, staring at the ground, "What is it?" she asked him, turning to him slowly.

Kyoshi was still contemplating on whether or not he should speak for about two minutes, being sure that because of his silence Sakura had gone back to fixing her make-up, probably knowing that he would speak when he had the strength to. He did get that strength he needed after a while, his prior time being spent only staring at the ground with an upset look on his features, "I don't want to be alone today." He looked up at her as she turned round once he had began to speak, locking eyes with her.

A small, barely evident smile crossed Saku's lips as she continued to look at him. She walked closer, kneeling on the ground as she stared up at him, "I really think you need to spend some time on your own to relax, get some freedom and be in peace for a few hours. It's something you really deserve."

In Kyoshi's mind he was screaming or more like crying out, saying she was wrong, that he couldn't be alone that day, that he wanted to be around someone, to be able to talk to someone rather than lie by himself for hours as the sun basked in through the window opposite his bedroom. He couldn't do it but more to the point, he couldn't protest that he didn't want to be alone. He was…submissive, she was in control of him at the time, it was for his own good after all, wasn't it? He watched on as the girl got up and left the bedroom, then slowly he released the tension in his shoulders as he heard the front door quietly close behind his fiancé. He hated the fact that he couldn't speak…he just froze up and his voice locked in place, continuously.

He sighed and crawled to the top of his bed, lying on his stomach as he buried his face in his pillow before nuzzling his cheek against it and stared off to the side of the room.

_**---Flashback---**_

_Darkness had fallen long ago in Japan as Kyoshi sat outside in the park on a bench, staring off into space until another dark figure emerged from the shadows and sat down beside him, her hands fixed in her pockets. Once Kyoshi felt her presence beside him he circled his neck and pushed himself off the bench, walking off to the front to stand in the middle of the dark empty park. Although, he was followed again, a voice accompanying the person, "These dreams you keep having…when do you plan on telling me about them?" Sakura asked him as she stood beside him._

_The two didn't dare make eye contact, instead still staring up at the sky where they could avoid the impounding gaze they gave each other constantly, "Why do you want to know?" Kyoshi asked her, demandingly. _

"_Because you can't sleep anymore…and you're scared. You know I only want to help. It's hard…to watch you like this." Her words where a little broken up, she had been wanting to talk to him about it for a long time but she never knew how she was going to go about the conversation. She stepped forward so all he could see was her back as she looked up at the darkness more, "I can see the fear in your eyes when you wake up, then you hold onto me like you're afraid I'm going to leave you alone to fend for yourself." _

_Kyoshi averted his gaze from space to look at her once he saw her look back at him for a reply, which he gave her with some hesitation, watching that as he began his answer she turned away from him again, "But that's the thing, I __**am**__ scared you're going to leave. Every night since my brother left, I've dreamt you die and leave me too. I left for two years so that I can try to live without you but I can't…"_

_Sakura spun around quickly, her shoes causing a small eruption of dust beneath her feet as she spun "Then don't try to!" she lashed out at him, "We can't live without each other, we know that so there's no sense torturing ourselves." She watched as Kyoshi loosened up under her vicious and angry glares. After a moment she calmed down and smirked slightly, "You know, you're pure hearted, you deserve the world and if I could give it to you then I would but I can't. The least I could do is try to help you the way you've helped me. Don't, for a moment, think that because you're older than me and immortal you know better than me because you don't." _

"_I don't think that I do." Kyoshi whispered, his voice being carried by the light wind though._

_Sakura shook her head a bit and stepped closer, "I want you to live Kyoshi but I don't want you to live miserably, I'll do everything I can to make sure that you living will be a good feeling for you. You just need to trust me with your life, just like I've trusted you with mine for twelve years." _

_Kyo had tears currently stinging his eyes, tears that where clouding his sight but not clouding it enough for her to lose focus on the girl's voice. When she finished speaking he stepped closer to her, breaking the small gap that was left between them as he pulled his right arm around her waist and pulled her quickly against his chest. The two rested comfortably in each others arms, Saku smiling contently into Kyo's neck, gently resting her hands on his back. At least the two had a bit of an understanding on the situation, heated conversations like these where the ones that got the two to understand each other in the first place. As long as there where more conversations like these, the two would be fine with each other. _

_**---End Flashback---**_

They knew each other for so long, so much longer than anyone would ever expect. They knew everything about each other yet there where times they couldn't stand each other, when that happened they hurt each other, a major fault the couple had between them. Thankfully it was never so bad that the two had to leave each other, they felt they were meant for each other and nothing was going to stop them from being together. Not even themselves.

She did upset him sometime, more than upset him actually. She made him feel uncomfortable, she made him feel that his opinion didn't always matter and sometimes that what he wanted wasn't what he could get. He hated being home alone with no one to talk to, no one to be with but that what he was left to do occasionally. It didn't matter whether he wanted it or not, it just happened that way. All it left him with was just lying on his bed with some uncomfortable lingering feeling.

It wasn't fair, he'd told himself that many times before. It wasn't fair that things like vampires existed, he didn't want to be the only vampire living, the only person with such dreadful experiences. To get someone to understand how he felt he'd have to rant about it for about an hour, going on about how he had to drain a person's life just to live, how he had to deal with the coppery taste going down his throat. He didn't have time to choke and feel squeamish on the blood, he had to drink it quickly while he still had the strength and opportunity. Did anyone possibly know how hard it was to go home and eat actual food while you still have the taste of someone's blood in your mouth? No matter how many times you brushed your teeth and rinsed your mouth you couldn't wash away the permenant taste there was.

Now obviously, Sakura tried to comfort Kyoshi in every way possible on the subject. She kept reminding him that the people he killed where criminals of all kinds, abusive parents, thieves, rapists and sometimes even stalkers. She reminded him that killing them by draining their blood was no different to shooting them and killing them that way. It was different though, there where big differences, differences she couldn't possibly understand as a mortal.

He couldn't help shifting uncomfortably on the bed, turning over onto his right side and staring through the white curtain into the living room. He hated the silence that filled the house, he couldn't entirely complain, silence was okay but when no one could be found in the house then he felt like he was all alone again. He couldn't help it, he sat up quickly, crossing his legs and crossed his arms across his chest and pulled them close enough for some warmth, he felt he needed it.

He took a deep breath, shuddering slightly as he felt a sudden cold air brush against his shoulders. He looked over at his bedside table, two things in particular sitting there; his cigarettes and his black mobile phone. He slowly stretched out his arm and slid the phone off the black surface. He flicked it open in a bit of a hurry and dialed Saku's mobile number, it had been only just under an hour since she'd left so she couldn't have gotten too far. He kept the phone close to his ear, hearing his own heavy breathing more than he was able to hear the ring tone. Finally he heard her answer the phone in a hurry, and he was quick to speak, _"Hey, Saku. When are you coming home?" _

"_In a few hours, why?" _She sounded so rushed, like she was walking down the streets in a hurry.

He needed to tell her the reason, he needed her there, he wanted her there so he wouldn't have to be alone again, _"I … I don't want to be alone today, can you please come home?" _

Kyoshi was able to feel her smiling suddenly, a small laugh being shed by the girl, one that he could only hear because of his acute senses. He slumped forward slightly, his fingers picking at the knee part of the jeans he wore with some nervousness before he heard her speak again, _"Honey, go and lie down for a while, sleep and I promise by the time you wake up I'll be there again."_

The fear and pain hit his heart hard again, he sighed once he'd heard her answer, she couldn't possibly think that her reply was even close to comforting but then again she wasn't exactly out to comfort him. _"Alright…I'll see you when you get here." _He replied hesitantly, he couldn't help it he _really_ didn't want to be alone all day.

"_I'll see you later, love you." _She hung up. Well…at least she had enough decency and kindness to say she loved him. Still…it didn't sound all that comforting for him to listen to, though it was comforting he was still upset about having to be by himself.

With an exhale of frustration he tossed his phone over his shoulder, it landing on the arm chair that was in the right corner of his bedroom after bouncing off the wall. He couldn't care less about what happened to any of his belongings when he was getting emotional. He really was a gentle and kind person but he couldn't help getting worked up when he was stressed out or emotional. He lay back down again, turning onto his right side with crossed arms. His almost numb finger tips of his right hand traced along his left shoulder, continuing to stare through the white sheet that divided his room from the living room.

Staring in the same place for so long made his vision blur a little, but as he was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he didn't both blinking or tilting his head enough to fix his eyesight.

_**---Flashback---**_

_Kyo sat in the corner of the orphanage's attic, his arms wrapped tightly around his legs as they had been brought to rest close to his chest. A form entered the room, the attic door being closed quickly as the person began their short walk across the dark bedroom. The person stopped directly in front of Kyoshi, making him look up slightly before the person knelt down in front of him. Sakura looked at him a little crossly, she was only fifteen but she already had coldness to her features. _

"_I told you that they're gone, you can go downstairs to get something to eat." She reminded him roughly, at the same time grabbing onto his shoulder and squeezing it. _

_Kyo just immediately shook his head a little, smiling gently at her as he spoke quietly, "I'm not that hungry." _

_Saku exhaled and stood up, "Get up and follow me." She ordered him. Kyoshi obviously did as he was asked, wondering at the same time why she was suddenly being so cold all of a sudden. She stood in front of him with crossed arms, "Go and lie down." She continued. _

"_How come?" he asked her, he really didn't see any reason why she'd order such a thing. _

_Sakura was quick to roll her eyes at his comment, "I grew up being taught that the slowest ones of the group are the ones to get hit first. Need I remind you that you got hit by twelve bullets today and you are the one who raised me knowing that rule?" she asked him rhetorically. Kyo couldn't deny her the truth, she knew the truth and so he could not lie about it. Sakura smirked once he didn't answer and nodded slightly, "Good, so now go and lie down on my bed." _

_Everything she said was true after all so he actually did as he was asked of. Lying on the bed, he closed his eyes so he didn't have to look into the darkness on the other side of the room any longer. Slowly and vaguely he was sleeping into a comfortable sleep, then he began feeling something cold against his face. He opened his eyes and raised them slightly to look at her, watching as she knelt down beside the bed. Her hair fell over her eyes but the sparkling grey eyes could still be seen by him, a blankness with very little concern in them. She continued running the wet cloth along his temple and forehead, he smiled gently at her before closing his eyes again. _

"_You're slow." He heard her whisper quietly, a tint of anger in her voice._

_He couldn't help but smirk at the comment, "You're reckless." He whispered more gently. _

"_You're overprotective." _

"_You don't watch where you shoot."_

_Saku pressed down a little harder with the cloth, "You split your attention while you're getting shot at, you start smoking in the middle of a gun fight."_

"_You're ruthless during fights but the people shooting at you are just as ruthless and you don't even take it as a hint that you should take more care of yourself." _

"_You don't trust me." Sakura bit out rudely. _

_Kyo opened his eyes at the sound of that, placing a hand on hers that held the cloth on his forehead and pulled it away slowly, furrowing his eyebrow at her words, "What do you mean?" he asked skeptically. _

"_I learnt from the best teacher this world has to offer, I learnt from you very well, you don't trust me to take care of myself in a fight but you must have had some amount of faith in me at the beginning to have put me into these fights, what changed?" _

"_You became reckless during fights, and you grew up under my care, if something happens to you then I don't know what I'd do." _

_Saku rolled her eyes, obvious habit, "I'm pretty sure you'd live." She commented. _

_Kyo muttered something beneath his breath as he closed his eyes again, despite Saku being so close she was unable to hear it and if she was totally honest with herself then she really didn't want to know what he'd said. She got off the ground, looking down at him and spoke coldly as always, "I'm going to go and change, I'm going out tonight." She left the room in a hurry, the heel of her black boots making a few amount of short thuds against the wooden planked floors before she reached the door and closed it behind her. _

_**---End Flashback---**_

Kyoshi remembered seeing her after she'd gotten dressed after that conversation of theirs. That was the day he had realized how much Sakura had changed in the two years that he was gone, she'd changed in all possible ways. He remembered, she'd walked in looking like a kinky assassin that looked like she was out to party but dressed to kill. Surprisingly she'd spent that night doing exactly both of those things. Although, he couldn't quite complain about any thing of that night though. She'd looked…to say the least, amazingly beautiful. She'd worn black and purple shorts, a tight black tank top and knee high boots, looking really confident at the same time.

He had to admit, it took him ages to admit to the fact that she had actually changed so much over a span of two years. Her all her body piercing had scared him a bit at first but she hadn't done much and he grew to liking it. Then again, his lip ring was the same as hers so he couldn't really deny that she'd gotten the idea from him. He didn't mind any of it now though, they were in love and that meant dealing with each other, getting the whole package, the good and the bad.

Although, to him there was a lot more good then there was bad. True she did have a tendency to hurt him but overall she dearly loved him and she did everything for him out of her love for him. She'd give up her life for him, they both knew that she would from many experiences.

Of course, he'd need to think about those experiences and go over them but he needed time for that, which he didn't really have because he heard the front door creeping open quietly. His heart instantly skipped two beats at the sound of it, making him shoot up in front. He glanced into the living room through the curtains, seeing a sign of no one. He slowly crept off his bed, and picked the gun up from under his bed and slowly stepped into the living room, ready in a shooting stance with the gun out in front of him. He turned the corner and reached the door, startling Tala who stood there staring wide-eyed in some fright once he'd turned and saw him there.

Kyoshi exhaled heavily and tossed the gun behind him onto the sofa, groaning quietly, "Sorry, I didn't know it was you."

Tala nodded, looking on at Kyoshi a little strangely, almost as though the guy where crazy or something. "It's fine." He shrugged it off obviously.

"How'd you get in?" Kyoshi asked suddenly, turning away and walking back into the living room to sit down.

The red head held up a black string with a silver key attached to the end, "Sakura gave me an extra key so Kai and I could get in without bothering you if you were asleep."

Kyo smirked slightly as he lay on his side on the sofa, placing a pillow under against his stomach, under his arm for support, "You didn't have to worry about that, I didn't sleep at all. Not that I'm complaining or anything, but what are you doing back so soon?"

Tala sat down across from him and shrugged in a reply, "Kai and I went to the apartment, spent some time doing everything we needed and then found we didn't have anything to do so we came back here."

"And where is he now?"

"He went to buy something to eat. As I recall, he said something about me looking like a white sheet of paper and needed some food."

Kyoshi laughed a bit, that was good at least he was laughing for a while and not crying, even if he was laughing over little things, "And clearly he's not going to trust you to eat anything that was in our fridge."

"I really don't know why he's so overprotective, I can take care of myself." Tala was clearly frustrated as he spoke, not in the least liking the idea that Kai was so protective of him suddenly.

"Well he must have some amount of faith in you, he let you here alone with me after all." Kyoshi reminded with a smirk.

Tala nodded, Kyo was right partly, "Yeah, it took some convincing but he let me. Besides, I trust you…probably more than I trust Sakura and she's actually mortal." Once he'd finished his sentence he winced slightly, realizing that came out all wrong. A) He pretty much just insulted Sakura and B) he rubbed in the fact that Kyoshi wasn't human. "Not the way that sounded." He apologized quickly.

Kyoshi laughed, "It's alright, I get it." He assured as he laughed, clearly having forgotten his early anxiety and enjoying the moment. "Really, your friend is just trying to look after you because he doesn't know what you're both up against."

Tala nodded slightly as he bit down on his lip, feeling a little upset at being deprived of his own pride these days, "Yeah, I know."

The two sat in the room in silence for a moment before Kyo lifted his head slightly and spoke out to the boy, "Why do you trust us?" he asked suddenly.

The red-head was taken aback by the question, it confused him that he'd ask that so suddenly when they hadn't even touched the subject for a minute. He whispered something quietly as he sought for the right words, for the right explanation actually but managed to bring together a few words, "I'm not entirely sure of anything at the moment…not even my own personality so I'm just trusting my own instinct of a person rather than working off of experience like he is."

The blonde turned onto his back, his hands on his stomach as he stared up at the ceiling with a blankness in his eyes as he waited a moment before speaking, "It's always good when a person can do both, it gives them a better chance of making the right decisions. You two are a team though, it's a good thing you can balance each other out." Tala nodded in agreement, once he had to think about it all then it really did make sense to him. "Why aren't you sure of your own personality?" he turned his head to look in his direction and make some eye contact.

Tala sat back comfortably in the arm-chair, staring up at a point on the ceiling to break the eye contact he had with the vampire. He contemplated for a moment on telling Kyoshi the truth, Kai would probably kill him for it later if he did but he wanted to make his own decisions again. A moment later he sighed and spoke, "I was in a twisted abbey that if I told you, you wouldn't even begin to believe how terrible it was there. The man in charge had surgery performed on all the students to enhance their power and such." He paused for a moment and could hear Kyoshi's arm brush against the back of the sofa as he'd sat up to look at the speaker with some interest, tugging the pillow into his arms and holding onto it as he listened intently. "I was one of his early experiments so obviously he was always trying to perfect things on me. One thing he did were implants in my brain which ended up making me a cyborg. That time passed, now I'm out, and so are the implants but with all that time of not being able to make decisions that were really my own and not having opinions or even a personality, I have a lot I need to sort out."

Kyoshi rested his chin on his arm that was perched on the pillow, he kept his eyes focused on the boy even though he'd refused eye contact, "Maybe I'm out of line in saying this…but maybe your friend has the right to be worried about you and treating you the way he does." He never could control his own opinions, even with Sakura, one time or another she was going to find out his opinion on any subject whatsoever. "I still think he should take notice of what you want out of your life but he's trying to look after you because he knows you aren't safe out here."

"Out here?" Tala asked in a hurry, looking at Kyoshi suddenly.

Kyo nodded in regards to the question, "In the abbey, no matter how bad it was in there, he knew that to a certain degree you were safe. Well, safe if you compared things to being outside the abbey which he knows more than you. He's just trying to protect you from the pain, some kind of pain, he knows that you've never felt."

"I know but there's only so much one person can take." Tala agued stubbornly, he knew Kai meant well but there where some things he couldn't handle.

"Obviously everyone has their limits but you'll work things out, look at me and Saku, we're overprotective of each other, we disagree a lot even though we share most of the same beliefs, we've got a strong friendship and more and we still managed. You two have a strong friendship from what I can see, you can make things work out."

Tala nodded in some agreement as he continued to ponder on Kyoshi's words, "Maybe you're right."

Kyoshi laughed, "Of course I'm right, when it comes to friendships and relationships I don't think it can get worse then me and Saku." He was joking but there was so much honesty in his words that it sound so real, maybe it was though.

**A/N: Another long chapter, the only reason I'm posting the chapter now and am not continuing writing this one out is because it almost exceeded the 1MB limit that fanfiction's updater has on it. So, please leave me a review so that I can continue writing this and the next chapter should be up soon.**

**Also, for those Cats And Dogs fans, once this fic is over I will be writing the sequel to that story since it was liked so much. **

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review. Take care everyone!**


	9. Possible Allies

_**Chapter 9**_

Kyoshi walked out of the kitchen, placing two glasses of water down onto the table before walking back to the sofa and lying down again. He turned over onto his side, going back to holding the cushion against his chest and closing his eyes with a peaceful look on his face.

"If you were supposed to be sleeping while we were all out and you're so tired now, why weren't you asleep when I got here?" Tala interrupted…well there wasn't much to interrupt anyway so it seemed okay to speak up.

Kyo opened his tired eyes again, looking directly into Tala's bright blue ones, "I don't like being home alone…I couldn't sleep."

To Tala, that made no sense at all but all he could really do was nod slightly in somewhat understanding to what he'd said. His eyes followed the older boy as he stood up and walked back to his room, Tala's first instincts being that he'd annoyed the older man to the point that he left but disregarded the idea when he saw him walking back with some things in his hands. The two objects where dropped into his lap, him staring down at them while Kyo returned to his earlier position. A video game and an iPod was left in his hands and by the time he looked up at Kyoshi questioningly the boy seemed as though he was about to fall asleep.

Of course, the vampire sensed the light gaze on him and spoke out an answer to the silent question he sensed on the Russian's mind. "I'm going to rest for a few minutes. For that time at least you won't entirely be bored. Sorry but I've forgotten what its like to be a teenager." He continued to keep his eyes closed as he'd spoken and once he was done he began a quiet and comfortable rest.

That left Tala to be with his own thoughts and wanders, leaving him with the option of listening to music or playing a game. He wasn't the type for games and would have much preferred music given the chance to listen to it so once he had the opportunity he took it. The player had already been turned on for him so all he had to do was put the headphones on and listen to the music on it. If the music on it was as good as the music Kyoshi and the other band members played then it wasn't going to be so bad to listen to. Some music was just really slow, some others where better, faster and more upbeat.

For minutes he listened on and on, sometimes opening his eyes to look around the room and pause the music. Kai didn't have a key to get into the house, the last thing Tala wanted was to have Kai locked outside because he didn't hear the door. No sound filled the room at all, the TV was off, there weren't any sounds coming from outside, Kai hadn't come home yet and nor had Sakura and Kyoshi was resting soundly so complete silence fell upon the room.

He shuddered slightly despite the heat there was outside, inside being slightly cooler due to the air conditioner. No wonder Kyoshi hated being alone, the house was haunting and terrible when no one was around to make any noise. He switched the music back on, he liked things so much better when he could just listen to something and be in a world where he didn't have to worry about what was around him. It wasn't exactly the case though, the fact that he was distracting himself made him feel a little scared of what was around him, not knowing how or when Hana would attack. After a while though he had managed to convince himself that Kyo would probably know if something or someone was in the room and would make it noticeable.

The music just flew past as he listened, some music listed as the band's own, others being of other bands, either in the region of Japan or foreign. Obviously some of the Japanese music he couldn't understand at all due to his lack of knowledge of the Japanese language but that really didn't stop him from listening to some of the songs. Besides, if he skipped every Japanese on there he'd only be left with a couple of songs, ones that wouldn't last him very long. One song caught his sight, more than his hearing at first. It was titled 'Cassis' and the intro to it was something that only dragged him to the song a little more. It all started out with a sweet slow guitar solo but escalated, more over, it was the singer that surprised him the most. The fact that the singer sounded so much like Kyoshi that it amazed him. Although, the band's lead singer was Sakura and there was no sound of her on the track at all.

He had to say though, he liked the song and would have asked Kyoshi about it but he really didn't want to disturb the older boy once he'd finally found the comfort to sleep. Or, he just assumed that he was sleeping but he had to say that he wasn't entirely sure about it. Mentally, he made a note to ask Kyoshi about it later, sometime when they had another quiet private conversation. He knew well enough he wasn't going to get another mature conversation like the one they'd had with Kai around. It wasn't that Kai intimidated him or anything. It was just that Kai was so overprotective he hardly ever gave Tala the chance to speak to the others and Kai was constantly in a bad mood and if Tala went and had a conversation with Kyoshi then that would leave Kai alone to be 'grumpy' as everyone put it.

Tala leaned forward and picked up the glass of water that had been placed on the table. He sipped it quietly as he turned his attention to the sleeping vampire. He began to wonder, how something that was said to be so dangerous could look so peaceful. Then again, he just needed to look at Kai for that, there wasn't all that much of a difference. Kai wasn't exactly the most cheerful or easy going person in the day time but when you saw him resting or asleep it was like watching a whole new person. Although he'd began to assume that almost everyone was like that when they were asleep.

After a minute he saw Kyoshi open his eyes and sit up, and instantly Tala paused the music again, "What's wrong?" he asked him.

Kyoshi smiled and shook his head as he pushed himself off the sofa, "Nothing, Kai will be here in a minute, that's all."

Tala moved his head back a bit, looking surprised, "How would you know?"

Kyo raised his index finger to his lips, silence filling the room then he pointed the same finger towards the door and on came the sound of the doorbell and a heavy knock. Kyo smiled at the shock on Tala's face, "Get the door." He ordered him as he walked into the kitchen, releasing a quiet laugh at the same time.

Tala shook his head of his own shock, walking down the hall to the door and opening the front door slowly. Kai stood there with two bags clasped in his hands, "That was quick." He muttered as he walked past his friend inside.

"I had help." The red-head muttered, more to himself then Kai.

The two walked into the kitchen, Kai dumping the two bags onto the table. He glanced over at Kyoshi while unpacking the food, out of the corner of his eye watching as Kyo looked at them as he sipped some icy cold water, "I got us all something to eat but I wasn't sure what you liked or…" he stopped there before he said something wrong but gaining a small stare from Tala.

The blonde raised his eyes from his drink and looked at Kai, raising an eyebrow at him, "Whether I eat normal food or not?" he asked him as an ending to Kai's own statement. He didn't get a reply, or even a nod but all he got was a blank look which answered the question for him, "Yes, Kai, I do eat normal food." He smirked as he answered the silent question of both. He pushed himself away from the counter and placed his glass down, "Although I'm not hungry, I'll be in my room if you need anything." His quiet footsteps could be heard in the living room, then down the hall to his bedroom.

Kai looked over at Tala who had sat down at table and begun eating some rice, "What's with him?" he mumbled.

Tala stopped eating for a moment and looked at Kai as he sat across from him at the table, "He wasn't like that five minutes ago, he was great company actually." Well, he was saying the truth after all.

Although, despite that truth, the boy opposite him grunted in some annoyance, "Must be easier to befriend a vampire than I thought." He commented coldly.

Tala stopped, putting the rice carton back down onto the table, looking up at Kai with a fierceness in his eyes, "Stop doing that." He growled angrily.

Kai smirked slightly but tried not to let it show and keep a straight face as he looked up at him, at least that old passion Tala was known for was back, even if just temporarily, "Doing what?" he asked.

"Making those stupid comments about him. I can't believe I'm saying this but we may be here a while and need to at least try to be friendly with them." Ok so now Tala was making up excuses. He didn't want to be friends with Sakura and Kyoshi just because they were stuck with them but because he just didn't want to be that cold-hearted unfriendly person that Kai had become. For years Tala's character was just like Kai's but at heart, he really was a friendly person, the pools in his eyes being great mirrors of what was now in his heart.

"Why are you so protective of him?" Kai's face fell a bit, looking at his friend with a usual blankness in his eyes.

The red-head fell back in his seat abruptly, looking up at the ceiling, "You never even gave the guy a chance to prove himself to you. I'm starting to think that if you weren't friends with me when we were younger you wouldn't be friends with me now again after all that happened to me."

Kai looked at him with a mixture of shock and disappointment, "What are you talking about?"

"I can relate to Kyoshi and that's a really good thing, Kai. But by not understanding him its like you don't understand me so you're making this whole thing a miserable experience for all of us."

Kai sighed and spoke quietly again, "I really don't know how this all works out for you but if it makes you feel any better than I'll be a little…nicer to them, especially Kyoshi."

Tala smiled a bit, looking at Kai again, "Thanks."

Kai groaned quietly and turned back to his food, "Yeah well if we die, just be sure I'll be saying 'I told you so'." He said coldly, a small smirk growing on his face.

The red-head laughed quietly, that comment from Kai was to be expected, it was Kai that he was talking to after all, "Yeah, I know."

**---Later---**

Kyoshi paced in front of the living room window, sighing as he drew back the curtain with his right hand, "Where is she?" he mumbled to himself.

"If you keep walking from the window to the kitchen any longer you're going to make a groove in the carpet." Kai told him from the sofa, crossing his arms over his chest.

Tala looked down at the ground, "Shame, it's a nice carpet." He joked quietly to himself.

Kyoshi shook his head quickly, something at the moment just didn't sit right with him. He turned towards the door and picked his gun off the dressing table, fitting it in his back pocket under his shirt, "I'm going to look for her." He informed them. He opened the door and exited before he even had the chance to stop from walking straight into Sakura.

She'd put her hands up defensively to keep him from hitting her in the face as he'd exited, "Woah, is there a fire I don't know about?" she asked, staring up at him as she'd stopped him.

Kyoshi paused and took a moment to take in what she'd said before shaking his head in a reply, "I was just coming to look for you."

Sakura's mouth opened slightly, furrowing her eyebrows, looking around the hall behind him, "Why?" she asked bluntly.

The blonde rolled his eyes and a low growl emitted from the back of his throat, turning and walking away from her, "Do I have to be questioned about everything?" he asked himself, setting his gun back down on the table.

The only girl in the room glared slightly at Kyo's back for his attitude towards her, muttering something under her breath that no one, not even Kyoshi was able to hear clearly. She dropped her backpack on the ground by the front door and walked quietly into the kitchen, coming back a few minutes later, passing Kyo another vial before walking down the hall to her bedroom.

Kai nodded slightly as he thought before asking, "Are we invisible to her?" he asked Kyoshi.

Kyoshi sighed, "Probably." He replied. He walked over to the window again and opened it up and leaned outside, looking up into the night sky. He took the serene and quiet opportunity to drink down the blood that was in the vial once Kai and Tala couldn't see it, obviously not wanting to alarm them.

Upon hearing Sakura walk back into the room, he pulled himself back inside and watched as her as she stopped in front of the sofa, opposite Kai and Tala, "Did you two have dinner?" she asked him.

Kai nodded and Tala replied with, "Yeah." And a curt nod to accompany it.

"Want anything else?" Sakura asked them, seeming like this was her attempt at being kind to them.

Kyoshi sat down in the armchair, sitting back comfortably, "She went through two years of culinary school, ask her to make anything she can do it." He decided to point out to them, earning himself a light hit against his shoulder from Saku who now stood beside the armchair.

Kai laughed quietly, those two where like a really old married couple, "I'm fine." He reassured.

Tala followed his friend in agreement and nodded quickly, "Me too."

Saku nodded and turned to leave the room and enter the kitchen but the voice of her fiancé cut through the silence, "Hey, you never asked if I wanted anything." She heard him say.

She turned round, a slightly amused look on her face, watching as he smirked back at her. She walked over to him and leaned against the back of the armchair, "Alright, then what do you want?" she asked him calmly, the playful smirk on her face not leaving her.

Kyoshi faked thinking for a moment, just to get her riled up, even if just a little bit for fun, "I'm in the mood for chocolate cake." He said suddenly.

Sakura raised her eyebrows the second she heard him say that, then stood up straight, crossed her arms and shook her head, "In your dreams."

"Now wasn't that a show." Kai whispered to Tala, the boy beside him laughing quietly.

Kyoshi shrugged slightly, "It was worth a shot." He told them.

"You knew it wasn't going to work though." Tala pointed out to him as though he were stating the obvious.

Kyo shook his head with some disagreement to the boy's statement as he stood up, speaking in a slightly more hushed tone now, "You will never know what you're going to get out of that girl. You have to ask what's on your mind every time, you can't just assume her answer because she _will_ surprise you."

"We should remember that." Tala whispered to Kai beside him.

Kyoshi covered his mouth as he yawned then arched his neck back, "Well…" he started as he looked at them again, "I don't know about you two but I'm exhausted so I'm going to bed." He walked to the door, "Good night." Was all that could be heard before all that could be seen was his side as he entered the bedroom, then his form lightly through the white curtains that separated the two rooms.

He lay down beside the girl that was currently lying on his bed uncomfortably, "How was your day?" she asked him, turning her head to look at him.

Kyo thought about it for a moment, then going with the first answer that had come to mind, "It was alright. Kai wasn't much of a bother as you'd made him seem to be, and I had a good talk with Tala so it turned out all okay." He turned onto his side, resting his head on one hand as he used it for support while the other hand gently reached out to Sakura's arm.

The dark haired girl watched for a second as the fingertips of the gentle hand moved up and down her arm, "What did you talk about?" she asked curiously.

"Nothing really important; he just ranted about his friend and I set him straight about some things."

Saku smiled lightly, though Kyo wasn't sure if it was because she was content with the hand movements he made on her arm or if she just found his day pleasant, "That was nice of you." She whispered. "So I should take it that you didn't get any sleep then?" she asked, looking over at him again.

"I didn't manage but if it makes you feel any better I got to relax."

Saku sighed heavily, "I suppose." She mumbled.

Kyoshi wrapped his arm over her tiny waist, resting his head back down on the pillow as he scooted over and kissed her shoulder softly, "You're exhausted, what happened today?" he whispered.

The raven-haired girl released a growl from the back of her throat, "Don't get me started." She said through gritted teeth.

_**---Flashback---**_

_Sakura stormed out of her car, slamming the door shut and closing it with the remote over her shoulder as she walked up to an older man that leaned against his car. The man caught sight of her and smiled at her warmly, "Thank you for coming," he thanked kindly._

_The girl stopped in front of him and rolled her eyes, "I'm not here for you, I'm here for him." She jerked her thumb to the side, the ten year old boy that sat on the grass, a body guard standing a few metres away from him. "So, let's get this day over with?" _

"_Be good, dear." The older man said, in a voice holding authority. _

_Sakura smirked, taking a cigarette out of the box and lighting it, "Hurry up." She coxed. _

"_Haven't you stopped yet?" he asked her angrily. _

_Saku moved the cigarette away from her lips and blew the smoke in front of her and into his face, "I tried, I failed, I'm back to smoking." _

"_Obviously." _

_**---Next Flashback---**_

_Saku sighed, standing in the middle of the toy store. She placed her hands on her knees and bent down to the boy's height, "I really don't __know, Adam. Do you think you could find something kids could play at a party?" she asked him. _

_The ten year old Asian boy smiled suddenly, nodding quickly, "Sure. Then I'll be over there." He said, pointing down an isle before running off. _

_Sakura shot up quickly, "Be careful. Don't run." She called after him. She sighed, placing her hand to her forehead, "I'm really not cut out for this." She said to herself.__ From that second she sensed a presence close to her, making her look around the store, behind her seeing Hana standing, her hands behind her back as she stared into Saku's eyes sweetly. _

"_Very good…sensing my aura like that." She said. She took a step closer to Saku and the assassin reached her hand behind her back and gripped the handle of her gun, "You aren't really going to open fire in a toy store are you?" she asked her, walking round her once before stopping in front of her again._

_Saku glared at her and crossed her arms, "Give me some credit." She spat rudely. _

"_I do…" Hana said, emitting a little bit of fake shock in her voice, her attempt at sounding even slightly human, "__Plenty of it actually." She added. _

_Sakura crossed her arms and looked around, eyeing the gun men that walked around the shop casually, looking around to blend in. She turned back to the demon in front of her and tilted her head slightly, "Good so since you have such high hopes for me, then you can stop trying to go after innocent people because you know that either way we're still going to catch up to you and stop you." _

_Hana laughed quietly, she took another step towards Sakura__, her mouth inches away from the fighter's ear, "Like I've already said…one down, two to go." She whispered, a hint of determination in her teasing voice. _

"_Go to hell." Sakura said through gritted teeth._

_Hana backed away slightly, "Been there…done that." She told her, giving Saku a wink before turning and walking back down the shop and exiting, her minions following her. _

"_Who was that?" A voice called timidly behind Sakura. _

_The girl turned round quickly, looking down at Adam, searching for the right words, "No one." She replied quickly. Then it dawned to her, "Don't ever talk to strangers!" she added hurriedly. She shook her head, "I'm starting to sound like your father." She muttered, "Anyway…did you find anything?" she asked him, looking down at him. The boy nodded and smiled up at her, why didn't the day just end there for her?_

_**---End Flashback---**_

"You got stuck babysitting?" Kyoshi asked, smirking lightly.

Sakura sighed in resurfacing annoyance, "It was his birthday, his dad asked me to take him to buy some toys and then help supervise his party."

Kyo shrugged slightly, being unable to understand some details, "Why didn't he get one of those macho bodyguards to supervise or do it himself?" he asked.

"You know that man, he wasn't there for me, he isn't going to make a big deal over Adam and he wanted me there. Something about wanting me to bond with my half brother."

Kyoshi laughed quietly, "He's amazing isn't he?" he asked rhetorically.

Sakura groaned yet again and turned onto her side, pulling an arm over Kyo's waist, nestling into his chest tiredly, "I'm beginning to feel glad I can't have kids." She whispered, closing her eyes.

Kyoshi wrapped his arms tighter around her waist and ran his fingers through her shoulder length black hair, "Don't say that…" he said soothingly, "You'll regret saying it later." He continued.

Tala and Kai walked past the bedroom, catching slight sight of the too that lay on the bed. Tala entered the bedroom he shared with Kai, formerly Sakura's bedroom before she'd taken it upon herself to look after them, "Those two are really sweet together." He told Kai, watching as he closed the door.

Kai smirked to himself, walking to the bed and lying down, "Aren't you a romantic." He brought to his attention.

"Because I think they're relationship is sweet?" Tala asked, looking back at him.

"It's one hell of a love/hate relationship if you ask me." Kai commented.

"They do love each other though and it's like a great thing."

Kai chuckled quietly, closing his eyes, "You're as persistent as Dranzer." He informed him.

Tala fell back on the bed, staring at the ceiling for a little bit. He didn't seem to understand how he had such a sensitivity to love and care, while Kai just shrugged it all off as though it where nothing or just something casual. "The relationship they have is great I think…they keep their own personalities, they go their own separate ways, they argue but love each other and at the end of the day, no matter how frustrated or tired they are they still find the time to ask how each other's day was."

The older half-Russian opened his eyes and looked over at Tala, the maturity and interest of Tala's words surprising him. Someone who had never been exposed to such things was talking about it as though he knew the meaning of it, but he himself who had been around the outside world longer had never thought of the perfection of such a thing as love.

"You really are a romantic." Kai said jokingly, trying to lighten up the conversation a little.

Tala allowed the bit of subject change, or rather shift of conversation that had turned onto him, smirking slightly, "It can't be helped, I suppose." He retorted calmly. "Don't you ever want a relationship like that with anyone?" he asked his friend.

Kai was tempted to laugh at yet another comment from his friend, "What's with all the questions?" he asked instead.

"I'm asking an opinion."

"Well of course I don't know what I want out of the future. Right now I'm living in the present and if I'm not careful, I won't make it to the future."

Tala sighed, turned and crawled to the top of the bed, dropping his head heavily onto the pillow, "No sense thinking about the future then." He muttered to himself.

"You can always look forward to the future though…" Kai pointed out to him suddenly, knocking him out of his thoughts, "It's very good motivation."

The red-head turned over onto his stomach and smiled slightly, "And you'd know because you need all the motivation in the world." He joked quietly.

Kai smirked and hit his friend's shoulder with the back of his hand lightly, "Shut up, you have your problems, I have mine."

"You have your friends though." Tala was quick to point out to him, yet again.

Kai turned his head and glared at the younger boy slightly, gaining himself a slightly timid look, "And that should make things any easier?" he asked him.

Obviously the younger Russian couldn't contradict Kai's words, Tala didn't know what Kai went through and what he had to do every day, so that gave him no right to say anything against him, "Maybe you're right."

Kai allowed silence to fall over the whole bedroom, staring on at the ceiling with some thought before glancing down at Tala, "You don't want to be in Japan, do you?" he asked him.

Tala sat up slightly on his elbows, looking at Kai with some shock on his face, a bit of annoyance accompanying it, "I was the one who wanted to get away from Russia and come here, remember?"

"Because I offered for you to stay with me. You didn't think you were doing me a favour by staying here did you?" Kai asked him sceptically.

"Of course not."

Kai sat up completely, pushing Tala over onto his back, "Then why did you come here?" he asked, making direct, intimidating eye contact with his ex-team mate.

The younger teenager's mouth gaped open slightly, not believing the words that where passing his friend's lips, "I needed to get away from Russia, it reminded me of too much and I couldn't take it, you know all that already."

"I know. I was just making sure things where clear between us."

"What is there not to be clear about?"

Kai shrugged his shoulders, his hand reaching out by his side to grab the air conditioner's remote, "Just forget I said anything, alright?" he asked, turning back to his friend.

Tala bit down heavily, "Fine." He said. He rested his head back down onto the pillow and closed his eyes, burning with frustration and annoyance on in the inside. Through it he heard Kai get off the bed and walk to the bathroom, spend a few minutes in there before coming back out…although with some time of just lying there with frustrations eating him up he'd fallen asleep before he could tell Kai anything else or even get under the covers.

**---Next Morning---**

Kyoshi took a deep breath, opening his eyes for the first time that morning, preparing himself for some sunlight to burst through his eyelids. Surprisingly none came, the blinds had been closed properly and the curtains drawn over them, disallowing any light to enter his bedroom from across the hall. Closing his eyes again, he stopped watching as the room had begun spinning before his blue eyes. He turned onto his back, wincing painfully as it felt as though he'd turned over onto shards of glass, he opened his eyes and stared at the jet black ceiling.

The smell of something backing in the oven was brought to his attention as he took in the scent of it. He sat up slowly, putting his hands behind his back to support his tired body. Once feeling bothered enough he opted to get off the leather bed he had been sleeping on, shrugging off the silk black sheets that had been placed over him. He slid off the bed, stretching at first before walking out of his bedroom and down the hall into the kitchen. There he ran his fingers through his hair, watching from the doorway as he saw Kai sitting in a chair at the table, Tala sitting on the table and both watching as Sakura pulled something out of the oven and put it onto the counter. Blinking in surprise he saw it was a chocolate cake, then he'd been noticed by everyone else, "Good morning." Sakura greeted, walking up to him as she tossed the cloth she'd used to get the hot tray out of the oven onto the counter.

"You know I was only joking last night, right?" Kyo checked with her, wincing again as his voice hesitated to come out.

Saku smiled softly and pushed him just outside the doorway of the kitchen so they wouldn't be heard, "No you weren't, besides you deserve it. It's a thank you for what happened last night." She whispered as she wrapped her arms around his waist.

Kyo stepped back a little, sitting on the arm of the sofa, "Was I drunk or something because all I remember was talking before falling asleep?"

Sakura smiled lightly and walked over to him, reaching her right hand out slowly as she brushed it against his cheek, "You weren't drunk. You remember everything as it happened."

The blonde boy placed his hand on hers that was on his cheek, leaving it there for a second before looking up at her almost weakly, he jerked his thumb over his shoulder and spoke quietly, "You mind if I go lie down again?" he asked her.

"Go ahead." Saku smiled gently at him, resting her forehead against his she gave him a quick peck on the lips before pulling him up. She looked into his eyes for a second before he pulled his hand out of hers and walked away, "The heats getting to you isn't it?" she asked him.

Kyoshi turned and nodded, placing a hand to his flushed cheek before turning back and continued walking to his bedroom to get some more rest while he still had the day light to burn off.

Saku walked back into the kitchen and began cleaning up the mess she'd made as she'd been cooking when she was asked, "Where'd Kyoshi go?" Tala was heard asking, the one being most concerned for the vampire.

The odd one out, the girl in her late teens, spun round and rested the small of her back against the counter, "He went to get some more rest. This heat wave is exhausting him, it can't be healthy but he pulls through just fine if he gets some sleep. He was meant to be sleeping yesterday afternoon, that's why I left him alone all day but he didn't rest at all."

The youngest shifted uncomfortably on the table, biting down on his lip for a second before speaking, "That was my fault…sorry."

"You know what Tal…he's alive and well and that's all that matters to me right now so don't be sorry." Sakura told him, clearly this being her idea of reassurance, "Besides…he seemed to enjoy talking to you and the guy needs all the human contact he can get." She added, a small smirk being etched into her features.

Tala smiled slightly, some part of him felt like he'd help make Sakura feel happy suddenly. Kai couldn't help but catch sight of the sincere smile on his friends face and looked on at it a little disappointedly, he couldn't help but think that he was bringing his friend down when he'd disallowed him to be near Kyoshi.

"So how long have you two known each other?" Kai asked her, looking up at her casually, gaining a slightly surprised look on her face, "You two are living together and sleeping together, so I assume a long time." He rounded off quietly.

Sakura smirked a little more, sinking down onto a stool to sit at the table with him, "Well I'm almost twenty now and I've known him since I was about…six, I think."

"Fourteen years, about the same amount of time I've known Kai." Tala commented.

Saku nodded, her black hair falling in front of her right eye a little, "I thought you two must have known each other for a long time. You seem to be quite close, sort of like a brotherly-relationship." She stated.

"That includes all the arguing doesn't it?" Tala asked Kai.

"I wouldn't really call it arguing…" The raven-haired girl started, "Rather, disagreements."

"That makes some sense too." Tala muttered quietly to himself.

Sakura nodded yet again and stood up, "Every relationship one has with another person is special in some way or another, treasure yours as though it's as special as everyone else's."

Kai and Tala looked on at each other a little blankly, both in their minds telling each other they were sorry for anything they'd done to hurt each other but then both turned back to the girl and pretended that they hadn't even thought of anything to each other, their prides still obviously disallowing them to. "So…how do you actually spend your days? Cooking and walking around the house all day?" Kai continued asking, annoying curiosity growing on him slowly.

Saku had begun putting dirty dishes and glasses into the sink, her back towards the other two as she replied, "Not cooking but I do spend most of my days home, and go out to the clubs and fights at night." She really didn't mind these kinds of conversations, she was usually so quiet but that was because there wasn't always something interesting to talk about. Now a calm and civilized conversation was all that she needed.

Tala furrowed his eyebrows quickly and was even quicker to speak, "Kyoshi doesn't feel bad that you've adapted your lifestyle to his?" he asked.

Sakura paused from moving the tray in the sink to clean it, she nodded lightly, more to herself than the other two as her eyes moved to look at the wall in front of her, "Oh definitely he does but that doesn't matter," She shrugged slightly and continued washing the black backing tray, "I don't have that many things to do during the day time so that's my main excuse but either way, I don't like leaving him home alone all the time, just a day a week or so."

"What do you do when he wants you to go out with out him?" Kai asked…things with Sakura and Kyoshi where so much like him and Tala that it was unbelievable how things where going at the time of their conversation. Kai really needed on advice on how to deal with Tala and his new habits of staying inside and all other things and the perfect person to give him such advice seemed to be Sakura, there was no one better than her at the time. At least now knowing Sakura and Kyoshi brought some good to Kai, he was able to learn from an expert on how to deal with Tala's sudden abnormalities and dissociation.

"It depends…if he's really serious about it and I think he's good enough to stay home alone then, by all means, I'll go but if he tells me to go out but I can sense his distress then I'll go against him and stay home with him. I'll stay out of his way, just so that I don't get on his bad side when he's already in a bad mood for me going up against an order but I'll keep an eye on him nonetheless."

Kai shook his head slightly, most things not making sense to him, "You two are constantly arguing, at each other's throats or disagreeing with each other, you put each other in random and rather stupid bad moods, he's not even human but you're a realist too, you don't even obey each other when you say things for their own good but you're still so close. How the hell can you have a good relationship like that?"

Sakura dried her hands again and turned towards the to, she rested her hands on the table on either side of Tala and leaned closer to his ear, "He's never been in love or in a deep relationship before has he?" she asked knowingly, whispering but allowing Kai to hear her, a playful and content smirk curling at her lips.

From the uncomfortable and startled look Tala had on his face when she leaned close to him, he laughed once he'd heard what she said before shaking his head with an amused look on his face.

Kai growled quietly, closing his eyes for a second, "If being in a relationship like that meant having to hurt each other and depress each other badly to get a point across then I don't think I want to be a part of it." He told her, even though a small part of him knew that some time or another he had in fact hurt a close friend, possibly even Tala, just to prove a point to them or teach them a lesson.

Sakura pushed herself away from the table, at the time taking in the fact that her closeness was probably making Tala a little uncomfortable, "In my opinion if you really loved a person and cared for them you'd be willing to hurt them enough to save them from whatever they need to be saved from."

"Even if you could only be making the situation worse?" Tala was next to ask her.

"If you make it worse then sooner or later they'll have to break down and when they do, you who inflicted the outcome could be the one there to help and things get resolved from there onwards."

Tala bit down on his lip for a moment and looked up at her again, making direct eye contact, "Don't you feel even a little bit bad that you'd done that?" he asked her.

Sakura nodded curtly, her eyes being fixed onto the ground, "I'm still human you know? Of course I feel bad about it, especially since I love him so much but the thing is that once he reminds you that it was all for his own good and thanks you for being of at least some help then any uneasiness you may have had would be eased." She answered him, honesty and a hint of sadness in her voice.

Tala stared at the ground too, an extremely faint smile gracing his thin lips, he found his voice and then whispered quietly into the sudden silence of the room, "I still think the relationship you two have together is sweet…no matter how much you hurt each other you still love each other."

The two that surrounded him both sneered, Sakura a little more than Kai, "Careful. We've still got feelings which means there's bound to be a limit in there somewhere." She joked quietly. She pulled her cigarette out from being tucked in her back pocket and slipped the last one out between her two fingers. She stepped back and placed it to her lips, lighting it with a match before throwing out both the match and the box. Upon looking up again she saw Tala looking at her a little upset, while Kai sat back, crossed his arms and acted as though he couldn't care less, typical Kai. "What?" she asked the red-head.

"I'm no expert or anything but I think its pretty safe to say those aren't healthy." Tala answered, shaking the annoyance out of his own head after he'd said that.

Saku continued to smoke the cigarette, polluting the living room air as she stood in the doorway that separated the kitchen and the living room, blowing the smoke into the living room where the window was open for fresh air. She pulled it away from her lips and stared at it between two fingers and her thumb, "Yeah, I know," she said annoyingly, clearly she'd heard the lecture before, "I've tried to stop three times before but haven't managed yet." She sighed and put it back to her lips, "Come to think of it, I think I'm going to finish this one out on the fire escape." She added through the object in her mouth before walking into the living room and disappearing out one of the windows.

Tala pushed himself off the table and sat down on the stool Sakura had been on earlier, right next to Kai, "She's…not so bad either." He stated, looking over at Kai for an opinion.

"I'd still be careful with her if I were you."

Tala smiled and shook his head, "I know Kai…I'm not a complete idiot." He said.

**---Later---**

Kai and Tala stopped in the door way of Kyoshi's bedroom, Sakura stopping behind them as she dug her hands in her back pocket and looked into the room too, "I can't believe he's still asleep." Tala murmured, resting against the doorway.

Sakura exhaled quietly and pulled her hands out of her pocket, moving them in front of Tala and Kai before ushering them away from the door and into the living room, clearly not appreciating her fiancé being stared at, "He's tired but he'll wake up soon enough, once he gets some blood in him he'll be fine." She assured them, sitting down beside them on the sofa.

The youngest of the group got off the sofa and walked over to the window, moving the curtain back slowly as he peered outside, watching as it slowly got dark outside, "I've never wanted to go outside so badly than I do now."

"Maybe you should have thought about that before you were spending all your week nights inside doing nothing on the sofa at home." Kai retorted, his voice still tinged with some ice towards his friend.

"I'd just got out of the abbey and I'd gone through a hell of a lot of surgery, its not my fault I didn't have the energy to get the hell out of that door."

Kai rolled his eyes, the usual malichios smirk on his face, "That didn't seem to stop you when you were meant to be resting and I found you training." He countered back.

"That was a different case." Tala objected, turning to look at him quickly.

Kai stood up and asked, "How?"

Sakura stood up and placed her hands palm up in both directions to keep them from going at each other, "Alright, clearly remaining inside is getting you two all worked up so I'll take you both out but you have to promise me you'll both listen to my orders." She looked over at each of them in search of a reply or assurance. "Do you want to get out of the house or not?" she asked them again, staring Tala down angrily.

Tala glared in her direction, his first major attempt at a glare in ages, especially to a person who didn't deserve it, "More than anything." He admitted through gritted teeth, turning his head to glare coldly at Kai.

The dark haired late-teen looked at Kai, keeping her hands where they were, "And you? Do you want to stay here or come with us for some fresh air?" she asked him.

"I'll come with you." Kai answered, glancing at her for a moment.

"You're going to listen to my orders?" Sakura asked them both, she was getting a little irritated by now, first things where fine and now she was playing referee for a couple of 'kids' in her opinion. She watched as Tala was the first to nod, she'd taken in a breath at that, at least he was being the slight bit cooperative for her and Kai soon followed another nod when she looked at him for an answer. She released the positions her arms had been stuck in and let them fall by her sides, "Good, I'll just get my jacket and we can go out. Can you two please not kill each other in my absence?"

"We're not childish." Kai defended himself and his friend suddenly, folding his arms across his chest annoyed.

Sakura shook her head and rolled her eyes, stepping past him to walk down the hall, "A minute ago, says otherwise." She commented.

The two teenagers left in the room looked at one another yet again, both their facades softening once they'd set eyes carefully on each other, "Sorry." Tala said uncomfortably.

"I should be the one that's sorry."

Tala, more than obviously by now, would have been nice enough to disagree with him and save him the stroke to his pride of having to apologize but he didn't, a change in character, "You probably do but I understand anyway so you can drop it now."

Sakura entered the living room again, pulling on a black leather jacket, red laces done all the way up the arms which she adjusted around her wrists, "Shall we go?" she asked, fixing the collar of her jacket, finally looking up at them. Seeing the calm look on both their faces she relaxed a bit more, "Am I interrupting something?" she asked upon seeing them acting a little more civil.

"No, nothing. Let's finally go out."

"Good. I'm in the mood for some fresh air and a good walk." Sakura told them, dragging her gun off the counter and sliding it into her jacket.

"You smoke like a chimney, you can never have fresh air." Kai commented with a sly look on his face, Tala nudging him lightly as he laughed silently.

"Ah bite your tongue kid." Sakura retorted, a little childishly at that.

"Afraid he might be right?" Tala asked her.

Sakura laughed, the three of them finally walking out onto the darkening streets of the city, "That's the last thing I'm worried about." She said honestly, shoving her hands in her pocket as the two began walking, "You just never want to irritate the person who has a gun in their jacket." She added wisely.

Kai walked up beside her, Tala doing the same on her other side, "You wouldn't shoot us out on the streets in front of all these people." The eldest Russian reminded her.

"Touche…but…sooner or later all these innocent bystanders will have to go inside the comfort of their own homes, leaving you two alone, out here, in the cold night, with me." Sakura made her tone of voice as haunting and dreading as she could, which really wasn't that hard considering she constantly manipulated her voice to that for her shows, considering their kind of music they played wasn't the kind she was going to use a childish voice for. She grinned once the two beside her had actually frozen slightly, not out of fear really, more just out of the sudden change her whole figure and voice had gone through in a couple of seconds. She smiled even wider as she looked over at the two of them, then moved her elbows out slightly to nudge them both at the same time, "I'm only kidding you idiots."

You want to know what the prior difference between the two Russians was at this point? Here it is; Tala could take a joke like that and pass it off with a small smile and stare at the ground but Kai couldn't and just let a growl be released from the back of his burning throat.

"Man Kai, don't be so sour, even Kyoshi can handle me when I'm like this." Sakura told him, pushing him to the side so he'd almost stepped right off the pavement.

The taller male stood upright again beside the girl, continuing to walk by her side until he'd caught sight of Tala laughing at something Sakura had whispered to him, "For someone who's as reckless as you, you sure can be a childish teenager." He…well just about insulted her terribly.

"Bite your tongue, or I'll have Kyoshi bite it for you." Sakura retorted coldly, a joke of course though.

"That's nasty." Kai mumbled, his hands in his pockets as he stared up at the sky while walking.

"Well he's bi and I let him do what he likes with other men so I think you should watch yourself." Sakura stated with a grin on her face.

"Just your luck, Kai." Tala said, glancing over at his friend that was on the other end of his newer friend, Sakura, someone greater than he expected. Said girl wrapped an arm over his shoulders, smiling softly at him when he glanced over at her and her action. Honestly, it was greatly uncomfortable having her so close to him but he didn't care about it at the time, instead just turned to look ahead and kept on walking with her.

That was until she paused, pulling her arm off of him and turning to look behind her. She looked around, her eyes moving from one side of the street to the other, her arms hanging by her sides. She turned slowly and pulled the two closer to her slightly, still walking on at a slightly faster pace, beginning to speak but quietly and through an almost closed mouth, "Listen to me, keep walking, do it fast but casually. The second you turn the first corner to the right there's an alley, wait for me there." She gave out the instructions in a calm but almost rushed manner, like time was of the essence and she really wanted to keep them away from the action.

Kai and Tala didn't nod, they were much smarter than that, but instead both raised their eyes to look at her enough to assure her that they were going to do as she asked of them. Kai looked directly at Tala through Sakura and they exchanged a silent agreement.

Sakura placed both her hands on the small of their backs, "Go and be careful." She ushered them forward, and she herself kept on walking, at a much slower pace than the other two. Her eyes moved from one side to the other, something behind her just feeling…not right. She stopped in the middle of the pavement, looking up at the sky for a second before looking behind her again. She tugged down the sleeves of her leather jacket and turned round, exhaling, "And this is where worlds collide." She whispered to herself. She walked slowly and casually through all the people…till finally she couldn't been seen anymore.

**A/N: Well, there's another long chapter, I'm sorry that it stopped so suddenly but I had to stop because it was almost over the 1MB upload limit. ****I really hope you've enjoyed this chapter, I know this story is mostly original fiction rather than a beyblade story but I just had to write it out I suppose. Thank you, if you've read this far, please leave me a review and tell me what you think of the story so far. **


	10. Long Times

_**Chapter 10**_

'_Sometimes I can't take this place, really, right now __it's __**my**__ life of all of them that I can taste.' _Sakura thought to herself, burying her hands in her pockets and walking on. She walked into an alley, resting her back against the furthest wall inside the darkness, looking up at the stary sky, "Stop being a coward and come out, I've out run you twice, don't make me have to do it again." She bit out angrily into the dampness.

Out of the darkness materialized a young man, his arms folded across his strong chest as he stared at her blankly, "You're good." He admitted to her in his deep voice.

Sakura bit down on the tip of her tongue in her mouth, smirking, "I love your honesty." She praised him.

The two looked each other in the eye for a second longer before both stepped forward in unison, one quick movement and both where up against each other, each holding a gun to the other's chest. "I told Hana already…I'm not giving her Tala and that's it." Sakura told him.

"You really should change your mind." He told her with some humour in his voice.

Sakura snorted, "Right, like that happens often." She laughed quietly. "So now let's be serious, you drop your gun, you can go home to whatever family you have left and I can go on with my evening, how about that?" she loved to negotiate, it was fun for her, it was taking cheating death to a whole new level for her.

The man raised a dark eyebrow at her, pushing the gun a little deeper into her chest, "Is that really you being serious?" he asked her, his features turning blank again.

Saku brought her hand down to the man's waist and pushed him away from her, then turning and walking back down the alley, "Go home, enjoy your life." She advised him casually as she walked off.

"Yeah, right." The man lifted his gun again, aimed it after a shot twice.

The younger girl was much faster than him though, he was a professional but she had learnt from the best there was. By the time two shots had been fired from the gun three had been discharged from her own, the man taking all three in the chest and dropping to the ground with a sickening thud. Sakura walked over to him and knelt down on the ground, resting her arms on her legs as she sighed, "I warned you didn't I?" she asked him, looking on at him a little…sympathetically. She got back up and stood just beside him as he continued to look up at her, no change of emotion flickering in his eyes, "If by some sort of miracle from whatever God you believe in, you survive this, tell Hana she shouldn't come back after anyone else, not that our threats have made that much of an impact on her but its worth a shot."

A trickle of blood seeped out of the male's mouth, dripping down his cheek, "She already has." He told her through the blood in his mouth.

"What are you talking about?" Sakura asked him calmly, although once his eyes rolled in the back of his head she knew it was a little late to be getting an answer from him, "I suppose I'll figure it out by myself." She whispered, running out of the alley in a hurry, slowing down slightly once she'd gotten back out onto the street. "They better not be hurt." She whispered to herself in some panic, running down the street suddenly, being unable to keep calm any longer. She couldn't say that she'd grown attached to them in that amount of time, but whether she did or she didn't never mattered to her, as long as the people she was initially trying to protect where safe.

She arrived at the alley she was meant to meet the other two in and slowly walked inside, drawing her gun at a point where no one could see it. She looked around bout found nothing, just the usual cold damp alley way she used to know. She exhaled heavily and turned to leave again, her head feeling heavy once she realized she didn't know where the two teenagers where. A close encounter between her face and the stone floor when she tripped over something answered one of her hopes, she'd tripped over the older Russian male that she was looking for. She turned over to sit down rather than lie on her stomach like the boy was, entirely unconscious…she hoped.

The girl placed her hands under him and gently turned him over, seeing him still breathing heavy but shallow breaths. Her grey-blue eyes scanned over his body, searching for any bullet wounds which she found none of. Another, unhelpful sigh was released from between her lips as she slowly lifted his head onto her lap, then placing her hand under his head, searching for any possible bumps, a small one being detected not far from his neck. She rested him back onto the ground and got up, looking around, a little more carefully around the alley, hoping so much that she'd missed something and Tala was around there somewhere, possibly even hiding, even that was better than him being gone.

She found nothing, naturally Kai didn't fall unconscious by himself and Tala would have helped him by now if he where hiding there somewhere. She set a hand on his shoulder and shook him gently, careful not to knock the bump with the ground, "Come on Kai, wake up, now's really not the time for a nap." She growled angrily to him. She began hitting his face gently, an action that probably hurt him quite a bit taking into account that he'd opened his eyes once she'd begun.

It seemed to have taken him a moment before he could really focus on the girl that was sitting beside him and staring down at him. He'd first started out with his eyes open rather wide, staring up at her with no clue as to what had happened to him while there before his whole expression relaxed slightly but sat up in a hurry again a second later. Obviously he'd remembered about Tala because that was the first word that tried to pass his lips when he'd sat up, the action taking so much out of him that the word took a while to come out with actual sound.

The dark-haired girl let go of him once he'd noticed she was even touching him and she stood up in a hurry, "I know, don't worry, we'll find him." She assured quietly, watching as he stood up.

Kai kept a hand to the back of his head, wincing slightly as he followed Sakura outside into the street. Sakura continued walking on but then finally took some sympathy and looked back at Kai, watching as he caught up to her, staring at the ground while he continued to touch the bump on his head. Sakura opened her jacket again, pulling out a black silk cloth from the inside pocket, handing it to him, an action that made him look up at her with the most confused look on his face. "I know where they took Tala, there's a bar next door, when we get there, I'll go inside and get him, you'll wait for us at the bar but make sure you get some cold water and put some ice on that bump." She told him, shoving the cloth into his hand, "For now put some light pressure on it." She advised him, turning and walking on without him.

The Russian placed the cloth to the back of his head, sighing and mumbling something about the team saying that he was the complicated one. Sakura really did have a bit of a complicated character, she was a terrible person in the beginning, terribly cold-hearted for leaving Kyoshi behind, even if she did know what she was doing but later she seemed to have cooled off and allowed her friendly side to be seen by the two that had lost hope in her and she surprised them with it but it was all sincere. He supposed that she was just a person that took some time to show people who she really was underneath her cold exterior. Now he assumed that when she was getting stressed out or had a job to do she turned completely serious again and put everything aside.

The evidence was in every time he saw her. She'd be really stressed after a performance but once she'd got home, relaxed and calmed down from the stresses of the day she'd be a caring and compassionate person. When she'd got back from that long day by herself she was stressed out and ignored them for a few minutes but when she left the room, took a calm minute by herself and went back out to talk to them she offered them something else to eat and even asked Kyoshi how his day went later. Although now was the point where Sakura was on a mission, saving his friend, someone she didn't even now and with great determination, something Kai couldn't complain to her about.

The girl held her arm out in front of Kai and due to his split concentration he hadn't realized it and walked right into it. He looked up at her as she turned round, grabbed his forearm and dragged him into a bar. She pushed him back to sit down onto a bar stool, slamming her hand down onto the surface to get the bartender's attention, "Sakura, your usual?" he asked her, walking up to her.

Saku smirked, "I wish." She answered. "Listen, I need to go run a quick errand, this is Kai, make sure he stays here and he's actually still here when I get back." She told him hurriedly.

The bartender shrugged slightly, "No problem, he'll be here." He assured her.

"Thanks." Sakura turned to leave but stopped for a second, looking back at him, "Oh and by the way, the only form of alcohol you're to serve him is surgical spirit on a silver platter if he prefers but that's only if he's got a cut on the back of his head, other than that you're not to serve him any form of alcohol." She informed him, waiting for him to nod curtly before she left in a hurry, of course giving Kai a small glare first. She ran down the street and around the corner before she came up to an old, naturally broken down clothes store. She walked to the side of the building and opened the back door that was hidden by boxes, clearly she'd been using that door too many times that it was hard to forget it was there, the sad part was that Hana still hadn't blocked it off, probably she hadn't realized it was even there.

She quietly stepped inside, gripping her gun in her right hand as she kept walking through the dark empty hallways that led to the store room. The first thing that caught her eye was Tala's mess of red hair as he lay unconsciously on the ground, Hana still on her high hoarse apparently, was Sakura's view of things as Hana sat down behind a desk, her feet up onto the wooden surface as she filed down her nails. "She needs a life…so badly." Sakura mumbled to herself. She watched on from where she was, wincing ever so slightly as she witnessed Tala being kicked over onto his back by one of Hana's thugs, a total opposite to the man Sakura had killed in the alley. This one was skinny but much shorter than the other one, also much darker in skin complexion.

Sakura braced herself, looked down at her feet as she took a step forward, the sound of her heels against the marble floors, echoing through the practically empty store. She gained the attention of all those alert in the room, something she'd counted on, "You could do better than that. Distractions are for those who don't have the intelligence to think of a better plan." Sakura told Hana, walking calmly up to the desk.

"And you're one to talk." Hana commented, smiling up at the mortal.

Sakura rested the small of her back against the desk, pushing herself off slightly a moment later and kneeling down beside Tala, two fingers going to his neck in search for a pulse. She moved her hand away when a steady beating was felt beneath her fingers, then she stood up and looked back at Hana, "What is it exactly that you want with him?" she asked her, walking back to the desk.

Hana raised an eyebrow at her, "Isn't it obvious by now?" she asked her.

Sakura shrugged slightly and sat up on Hana's desk, looking at her with a passive look on her face, "Well his life and power was the first thing I thought of but deep down I really was hoping it was something different."

Hana chuckled quietly, putting down the nail file, "Sorry, sadly it isn't." she apologized, her facial expression really not matching up to her apology.

Sakura looked down, her black hair shadowing her whole face, her smirk being hidden well-enough but her voice as clear as crystal, "That's what I thought." She said with some humour in her voice, moving her gun to her side and shooting the male in the room down.

The water-demon looked to the side, pouting as she tilted her head to the side, "Hey, I liked him." She stated childishly, looking back at Sakura with a sharp glare.

"Awww, too bad." Sakura stated sarcastically, staring down at Hana with an amused look etched into her features.

"There's more where that one came from at least." Hana shrugged, standing up, resting her hands firmly on the desk as she leant closer to the other killer, "Leave, now, please before you get hurt badly." She said slowly and quietly.

Sakura smiled, her dark eyelashes fluttering as she leaned in and whispered in her ear, "I will, but I'm taking the boy with me, you know?" she asked for the confirmation.

Hana glared evilly, gritting her teeth heavily, "Over my dead body." She bit out.

Sakura laughed, resting her head back before looking back at her, "The funny part is…that can be arranged." She said confidently. A whole change went over in Hana's mind and balling her fists she back handed Sakura once. She stood back as her old friend placed a hand to her cheek, her face being covered by her long hair again, "Finally, you put some spine into it." She complimented, jumping off the desk and looking back at her.

Before she knew it Kyoshi's footsteps could be heard, the vampire walking up behind her, careful to step over Tala, "You could have told me we were having a meeting, then I wouldn't have been late." He told the two of them, looking from one angry being to the other.

"Yes well I would have but it wasn't planned." Sakura told him bitterly.

Kyoshi looked back down at Tala, whispering in Sakura's ear quietly, "Is he alright?" he asked her.

"I think so." Sakura replied, moving her head swiftly to brush her hair away from her face.

"Get Tala out of here." Kyoshi ordered her, glaring on at Hana as she smirked at him, a terrible form of confidence in her eyes.

Hana walked out from behind the desk, leaning against the front of her desk, "She won't make it that far." She told him.

Sakura rested her head back slightly, closing her eyes and sighing, _'Wow I can't stand this woman's cockiness, it's exhausting, rather it's exhaustingly irritating.' _She lifted her head again and opened her grey eyes, "What makes you say that?" she asked her.

Hana raised her index finger and pointed at the store room's entrance, "They're the ones that validated my opinion of that." She answered.

Sakura and Kyoshi looked back at the entrance, watching as all the thugs in the building…about ten, made their way, taking their time up to Kyoshi and herself. The dark-haired girl just smiled over at Kyoshi, picking up her gun and drawing back trigger, "Won't this be a fun night." She observed happily.

"Just be careful for yourself, and for Tala…I'll be watching." Kyoshi smiled, brushing his hand along her shoulder once before disappearing to the side of the room, levitating high up onto a large window to watch from there.

Hana stepped closer to Saku, her old friend, as the two of them looked up at Kyoshi, "He's not serious about this is he? You two have been doing the same pattern ever since you two met, about time you changed it." The brown haired girl commented, staring on strangely at their calm vampire.

"Why fix something that isn't broken?" Sakura spun towards Hana just after she spoke, giving the demon one clear shot to the stomach.

"Saku, right." Kyoshi called out the order to her upon seeing men attempt firing, strangely saying it in the calmest of tones.

Sakura turned round, her raven-like hair sweeping behind her, glaring to her right she shot twice and took down the two that had been approaching her. She looked around the room, seeing every other person had hidden behind numerous crates and objects, an action which tended to frustrate Saku greatly, "Come on, don't be such children, you're the ones that started this, let's finish it once one of us is dead." She shouted out.

"Sakura…death bad, life good." Kyoshi taught her, speaking slowly and calmly.

"Oh please, these guys can't even aim appropriately." Sakura noted, "See? And Hana's been reduced to a puddle of water." She added, stepping in the water that Hana had left behind when she'd disappeared after the blow to her stomach.

"Right." Kyoshi called out again.

Sakura shot in the direction of each and every order that Kyoshi gave her, sighing once she assumed they were all dead. Sakura sighed and sat down on the desk, fitting her gun back inside her jacket, "You can come out now, Kai." She shouted.

Her suspicions where confirmed and Kai stepped out of the shadows, the dark side of the room that came from the back entrance where the other two had come in from earlier. "How'd you know I was here?" he asked her, stepping walking closer, slowly as he watched out for any more shooters just in case.

"How'd you get away from the bartender?" Sakura asked him, instead of greeting him with an answer.

"You'd be surprised at what I can do." Kai replied, walking faster up to Tala once Sakura waved her hand at him, signalling him that it was safe to be there. Sakura joined him by kneeling beside him and Tala as Kai slowly began to try and wake his friend up gently. Kyoshi walked up beside them and stood above all of them, staring down as Tala began to come to.

Tala's eyes slowly opened, closing again quickly as the strong light shone from the light bulb he was lying just under, "I'll fix that." He heard Sakura say before a shot was heard and shattering glass began falling to his sides, none on him. Once he opened his eyes again he saw Kyoshi's body shielding both Kai's and his with his own before he stood up straight and moved back a little. Sakura knelt back down on the ground and took the red-heads hand in her own, "Come on sleepy head, time to go home and sleep in an actual bed." She said humorously as she attempted to help lift him off the ground.

All Tala could do was allow himself to be helped off the ground, his body weak from the surgery that had been done only a month ago, his body now numb from being on the cold marble ground unconscious for so long. His only reaction was groaning as he wavered on his feet slightly but once Sakura had let go of his hand he grabbed hold tightly onto Kai's shoulders to keep himself from falling backwards, which he did so almost anyway, pulling Kai with him.

Kyoshi moved to stand behind Tala as his hands slipped off Kai's shoulders and he almost crashed back down onto the ground. The vampire caught him from under his arms and gently set him sitting on the ground, then looking down at the painfully red liquid that his hand was now tainted with. He choked on his breath suddenly, making a disgusted face with water in his eyes as he walked away with heat burning in his face, "Saku…" he called out quietly, turning to the wall and resting his heated forehead heavily against it.

Sakura walked up to him and took his hand, looking down at what he'd seen that made him so sick, "Relax," She whispered in his ear before turning and walking away to the others. She walked up to Tala and looked at the same slice in the jacket and flesh that Kyoshi had felt the blood come from. "Let's get him home and get this sorted out." She whispered to Kai, helping to lift Tala.

Tala though, insisted that he'd be fine and shrugged Sakura off of him which she didn't really mind, just made sure that Kai could handle taking Tala to the exit by himself while she made her way back to her fiancé. She placed one of her hands gently on his right shoulder, pressing down slightly into the tense muscles, "It's getting late, let's go home." She said softly and carefully.

Kyoshi pushed himself off the wall in a hurry and turned around and followed the others out as he stared down at the ground, being followed by his fiancé and her slightly worried gaze. The four of them walked out onto the streets, each of them exhausted in their own ways as they walked back to their shared home. After a while though the girl noticed that the vampire had gone missing in a number of minutes and after a moment of contemplating she realized why. On the other end of Japan the sun had already begun rising, despite it being only three in the morning at the time but just supposed that she'd see Kyoshi at home once she got there with the other two.

True that, Kyoshi was lying on the sofa uncomfortably when she got home with the others but got up again the second he saw them. Kai got Tala to settle down at a table in the living room and Kyoshi walking up to sit just behind the red-head, the first aid kit being on the table from the second he'd gotten home. Sakura watched for a second that with some determination Kyo picked up the anticeptic onto a piece of wool but she took it upon herself to interrupt, kneel down by the chair and whisper quietly in Kyo's ear, "You sure you can do this? I can handle the blood more than you can right now." She stated to him, watching him for a reaction to her words.

She barely got one though, he just grit his teeth slightly and watched as Tala threw off his jacket and t-shirt, "I'm fine, I can handle cleaning and stitching a cut, I'm not completely hopeless." He replied in a hurry. He patiently waited for the girl to leave his side and go into the kitchen, calling Kai with her before he began running the spirit along the slash a knife had drawn onto the back of Tala's shoulder. "You're alright apart from this?" Kyoshi asked quietly, attempting conversation with the boy to keep him awake.

"Yeah, nothing an hour's sleep can't fix." Tala replied, exhaustion which was more evident once he yawned.

The blonde behind him smiled slightly as he pulled out an arched needle and thread from the box beside him, "I really think it'll take a little more than an hour." He informed, placing the needle to the skin and slowly beginning the stitching to close the wound safely.

Tala just winced mildly when he felt the needle and the stitches being started and pulling at his skin but ignored it and passed it off with some more conversation, "Probably but I have nothing to do in the morning so sleeping in a couple of times in a week wouldn't kill me."

Kyoshi nodded slightly, not averting his gaze from his work, "In this house, sleeping in is like a rule. Sakura and I spend our whole mornings asleep, we spend all our nights in fights or at bars so the morning is the only time we have to get enough sleep." He explained casually.

"Sleeping in as a rule? Teach that one to Kai, please for my sake and the sake of his team." The youngest tried his hand at a little humour and really, it worked because it was a comment that really made Kyoshi chuckle a little at.

"Hopefully by the time this thing with Hana is all over we'll send you home with a new and improved Kai but I'm not promising anything, that guy is too stubborn for my patience."

Tala smirked lightly and stared at the ground, "Right, because I have the patience of a saint." He quipped sarcastically.

"No comment." Kyoshi told him, a rather amused look on his face as he said that and Tala laughed at it. He tugged slightly at the boy's sleeve, "You're done." He informed once finished, standing up exhaustedly as he walked across the room and sat back comfortably on the sofa.

Tala stood up and looked over at him, trying a small smile on his tired face, "Thanks." He showed his gratitude quietly.

The vampire across from him allowed a redness to come into his eyes, nodding quickly before resting his head back and closing his eyes, "Good night." He wished. He heard Tala wish him a goodnight too, then go to the kitchen and leave to go to the bedroom with Kai to get some well-earned sleep for the following day. It wasn't over yet though, more footsteps were heard approaching him and Sakura sat down on the coffee table, sitting just across from him and close to him.

"You're worrying me a bit." He heard her state quietly, placing a hand on his knee.

"I just panicked at touching blood like that…I got over it." He heard himself speak calmly again, it really wasn't a mirror as to what was going on inside him though.

Sakura placed a gentle hand under his chin and he relaxed slightly, releasing a breath of air, all he needed to do was remind himself to relax a little more and he would be perfectly fine. He opened his eyes and stared back at her, keeping an eye on her as she got up and sat next to him, as she leant forward slightly he hesitated and moved his head back a bit, why did she want to be next to him when he felt this way?

She stood up again but kept a hand on his cheek as she caressed it gently and comfortingly, "Lie down a little." She spoke softly to him.

Kyoshi shifted his body weight slightly, grimacing at the exhaustion that his mind suddenly underwent just from that shifting but in the end found it in himself to do as she asked of him and lay down on the sofa, adjusting a pillow under his head for a comfortable support. Through some slowly blurring vision he saw her sit on his waist gently, brushing his blonde and brown hair away from his face and off his hot forehead. She took both his hands that currently where resting on his stomach and lifted his hands to remain above his head, stretching the muscles of his arms uncomfortably. She used one hand to hold his own over there and used her other hand to stroke his arms and forearms on the inner part, the more sensitive skin which sent chills down his spine, along with a rather uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach, the gentle move on his sensitive skin being too much on a stressed stomach.

His face contorted to one of disgust again and he turned it away to look down the hall prior to closing his eyes to avoid any more sights of anything. Although now her hand stopped the movements on his arms and touched his chin again softly, turning it so he could look up at her once he opened her eyes. The stare he was faced with once he did open his dark blue orbs was one of uneasiness and sadness, "You're not relaxing like you used to, you need to calm down otherwise you'll keep panicking." She murmured to him.

Kyo shook his head quickly, his hair being messed up by the friction of his head with the pillow beneath him, "I can't calm down right now, I'm sorry." He apologized, arching his back slightly with some physical frustration.

Saku shook her head, compassion in her eyes, leaning forward for her chest to be lightly pressed against his own as she brushed away his hair with her long nails covered in black varnish. She smiled soothingly at him and let it shine in her eyes, "Stop apologizing to me. You haven't done anything wrong, you shouldn't say sorry for feeling human emotions, I've told you that already." Still resting both hands on either side of his face she watched as he made no attempt at a reply of any kind and she allowed her lips to fall on his own pierced one, giving him an innocent but tender and loving kiss.

Once she pulled her face away from his, her hands remained where they were but Kyo turned his head again to look down the hall, closing his eyes as he savoured the warmth as his cheek nuzzled comfortably in her left palm before she set her lips down on the side of his neck this time, leaving him a few passionate and loving feelings as his body only tensed up to the idea of being loved by a mortal. He opened his eyes momentarily, moving his arms down again, one to wrap around her waist while the other subconsciously went to run his fingers through her dark hair.

The younger girl smiled softly and closed her eyes, carefully resting her head on his chest as she heard his heart beating heavily against his ribcage and his breathing was still laboured. She looked up at him again, seeing his eyes still focused on staring down the hall, she brushed the back of her fingers under his eye, getting his attention again. She sat up but continued to look down at him, placing both her hands by his sides so she could lean forward slightly to speak to him, "I don't want to be told that I don't treat you right but I can't help you much more than I already do if you don't listen to me when it really matters." She sounded just a little frustrated but overall her tone sounded loving and caring, a reminder that she really did care about him and his opinions, no matter how many times he had to protest to her orders.

Kyo's eyes saddened slightly and he closed them so that his fiancé wouldn't notice it and comment on the emotion he held tightly onto. He opened his mouth to speak but it took a while before any sound actually came out, his voice tired and drained, "I really am sorry for brining you down. Just try not to think about me and my problems so much and eventually this will all pass and it won't matter anymore."

"Didn't I just tell you not to apologize anymore?" Sakura asked him, a little angrily, "But still, I'm not about to forget anything, you've protected me ever since I was a child and not once did you ever ignore me if something was wrong, I'm not about to do that to you and by now you should understand that and stop telling me that I need to ignore your feelings."

Kyoshi pushed himself into a sitting position, pulling Sakura closer to wrap her legs around his waist while he stared tiredly into her eyes before he smiled softly. He stroked her neck with his fingers before leaning in slowly and giving her a light kiss on the lips, waiting for her to pull herself closer to him before he continued, both of them with very vague smiles on both their faces. The dark haired girl allowed her hands to move up onto his chest and after a moment he pushed Kyoshi onto his back to lie back down.

Sakura got off of him but gripped his hand slightly as she pulled at it, "Let's go to bed." She whispered, smiling casually as she did.

The vampire chuckled silently, turning to sit down properly before hauling himself off the sofa with Sakura's help. He paused in the middle of the living room, pulling Sakura back to stand in front of him as he slid his arms around her waist again. She seemed to smile up at him honestly, honest smiles from her where just so comforting to see. He couldn't help but smile back and the watched for a second as Saku reached upwards slightly and kissed him again, gripping both his hands tightly in her own by her sides.

**---Next Morning---**

Kai walked quietly into the bedroom that he shared with Tala, carefully closing the door behind him as he entered the room, quiet so as not to wake up his exhausted friend. It was getting late, almost 11am but Kai had chosen to leave his friend to relax and get some sleep after the long day he'd had the day before. It was a lonely morning though, having no one to talk to aside from Dranzer and he wasn't much of a speaker either.

The older Russian just crept into the room, sitting down at the foot of the bed but being startled when the bed creaked slightly from Tala turning over and sitting up, "Morning." Kai greeted him, looking back for a second before turning away again.

"Morning." Tala returned, stretching his arms out in front of him a bit.

Kai stared down at the ground, "Slept well?" he asked.

"Yeah, great, you?" The red-head answered, getting out of bed and walking to the bathroom.

"Fine." Kai said, loud enough for him to hear him from the bathroom.

Tala switched on the tap water, running his hands under the water before rinsing his face to wake himself up a little more, "Well the sleep really did your mood some good." He commented sarcastically, walking out of the bathroom to look at Kai as he wiped the water off with a towel. Usually he would have got another sarcastic comment from his team mate but this time it seemed as though something really was bugging Kai and Tala took a step closer, "Something bugging you?" he asked him.

Kai looked up at him, staring into his worried eyes for a minute, "Are you alright after yesterday?" he asked his younger friend.

Tala smirked suddenly, he really couldn't believe Kai was still thinking by all of that, even though he'd reassured him that he was fine, "Yeah, don't worry, I feel fine." He assured him.

Kai shrugged, "Then nothing's bugging me." He replied to the slightly earlier question.

Tala sighed and nodded, "Good." He turned, picked up the rest of his clothes from the chair by the bathroom door and went to have a cold shower.

Kai exhaled heavily, and slumped forward with some frustration on his face, so many changes to deal with lately. He really felt bad for even having to complain about any changes, Tala was the one who had the most changes to deal with so he felt bad that he was there complaining about it. Having Tala living with him, in a whole new country brought to him some very heavy concerns to his attention. When they were younger they always looked after each other no matter what happened and who they had to fight against to protect each other. Then came the time where they didn't need to do that, because they knew that the other was stronger and could now take care of themselves a little better but now the time of looking after each other resurfaced and the alien feelings scared Kai to the extreme.

True, he'd always worried about his friends on the Bladebreakers team but that was because they tended to be rather hopeless if they didn't have help or think clearly like he did but worrying about Tala…just felt amazingly different to him. The two had been friends since they were kids, they knew a lot about each other back then but now with Tala's lack of knowledge about himself Kai didn't know what to do anymore.

Back then, Kai would have trusted Tala to do what he liked, and to look after himself but back then Tala also had enhancements in his body that now he didn't have anymore. Not to mention, that to get rid of those enhancements Tala went through an amount of surgery, which didn't help the cause at all. Obviously, Kai wasn't thinking that the younger boy was frail or anything, far from it really because the change in the boy made him more determined and determination is always good, especially if things in your life aren't always that great but Kai still couldn't help but worry about him, he was older than him and he was trying to care for him as best he could but silently in his mind he cursed that because he felt like he lost a part of himself in caring for the Russian ex-captain.

The caring side of Kai was clearly one that people didn't mind seeing him portraying, naturally because Kai caring is a great step forward for the captain but to Kai it was a great change to worry this much about one person, no matter how much that one person meant to him. Then meeting Sakura and Kyoshi, Kai was put into a difficult position, having to choose between instinct and his knowledge of the past. He'd started out with his knowledge but that didn't get him anywhere and for the sake of his friend he changed his mind and began slowly trusting Kyoshi and Sakura, allowing the vampire to stitch up his friend's cut without any protests.

A hand was waved in front of his face and with a surprised look on his face he looked up at the owner, the Russian that was preying on his mind standing there. Said Russian knelt down in front of him, looking at him as though he were trying to figure out if he was ill or something, "What?" Kai asked him coldly, too cold, something he didn't mean to do.

"Nothing, you went blank and I got worried something was wrong." Tala replied, standing up straight again. Kai followed him with his eyes as the red-head walked to the door and put his hand on the doorknob to open it, "Let's go get something for breakfast." He said.

Kai shook his head quickly, "Let's just stay in here for a little while longer." He said.

Tala jerked his head back a bit with confusion on his pale features, "Sure but how come?" he asked him, walking back to him.

"Let's just stay here." Kai insisted, staring back at the ground.

The younger boy groaned loudly and sat down profoundly beside Kai at the foot of the bed, "But why?" he asked.

Kai sighed and rested his head in both his hands, "Because Kyoshi and Sakura are in bed with no clothes on, awake and very well-aware of each other and got extremely close in the five minutes it took me to go get a glass of water and need I remind you that we're the ones in the only bedroom that has a lock on it?" he explained then asked rhetorically.

Tala winced just slightly, smirking once he realized what Kai was implying and why he didn't want him to go out there, "Thanks for warning me." He said with some humour in his voice.

"You're welcome, now next time don't ask so many questions." Kai said, lying backwards with his hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling, "I really didn't want to describe what was going on in there." He added with a smirk.

"Too bad I couldn't catch on any faster." Tala said stupidly, staring down at the ground in thought of Kai's odd ways of saying things.

"Yeah, well now you know not to ask too many questions." Kai told him, glancing over at him.

Tala nodded quickly and joined his friend lying back down, following Kai's example and staring at the ceiling, "I think I still need to learn to shut up, that hasn't changed from the abbey days."

"Don't change, Tal." Kai whispered softly, closing his eyes.

Tala turned his head to the side, looking at his friend with a sudden relaxation to his face, sitting up slightly on his side, "Kai?" he asked, looking for some more into what Kai said.

"Just don't force a change on yourself because you think you don't have a personality…it'll sort itself out eventually." Kai exhaled noisily, he hated deep meaningful conversations, it made him sound smarter and easier to understand but he hated the sudden attention and care that came with it but continued anyway to get a point across, "There was nothing wrong with you in the past, when we were younger, and if that's the personality that comes out now then it wouldn't be a bad thing at all. Whichever happens, then you'll still be a close friend of mine but don't force things on yourself in a hurry, you'll regret the impact it could have on you later." He added wisely.

Tala smiled softly, understand his friends words clear enough, an understanding they had as he nodded and turned over to lay back down, "Thanks…I needed to hear that." He thanked in a low voice.

"I…I'm not saying you're wrong about those two though, you may have been right about them the whole time."

"They seemed like honest people…despite what they do as a side bar for what they do for a living."

"Yeah…maybe you were right all along." Kai whispered quietly.

Tala smiled, "But if we die you'll still be blaming it all on me." He pointed out.

"Of course." Kai laughed, glancing over at the calm look on his friends face.

**A/N: Another long chapter. Hope you liked it, please leave a review and tell me what you think! Bye byes everyone!**


	11. Surprise Surprise

_**Chapter 11**_

"Kai…" Tala started quietly, sliding his eyes slightly to glance to his right to look at his friend, "Where you serious when you said that I have to train your team a couple of times a week when they're back from their vacation?" he asked, looking back up at the ceiling once he'd asked the question, waiting patiently for an answer.

The older Russian nodded, glancing back at his younger friend, "I think it would do you some good, I know they were a great help for me and just knowing them will do you some good too." He replied in a stern voice, the kindness still in there though.

Tala shivered slightly back against the covers, hesitating slightly before speaking again, "They're…they're not going to like me, Kai. I can tell you from now that things between me and them won't go well."

Kai sat up, pulling his arms around his drawn legs, looking over at Tala with a monotonous look on his face as always, "Do you plan on starting an argument with them?" he asked him plainly.

The red-head shrugged, giving Kai a rather annoyed look, "Of course not, I wouldn't even try." He answered honestly.

"Then there won't be any problems." Kai informed him suddenly.

Tala felt something else burning inside him, some anger maybe, that Kai could be so quick to say something like that when he couldn't be sure, "How can you be sure that they won't start something? I don't exactly have a clean slate with them, I wouldn't be surprised if they'd rather I were dead rather than be living with you."

Kai sighed, giving his friend a look of disbelief, "I know because they should know better than to go against one of my orders of being respectful towards you. Besides, I'll explain everything, I'll explain that you're not the same person they saw you as and they'll understand, believe it or not they're very understanding people when they want to be." He wasn't sure anymore if his words where making any sense to his friend and at the time he didn't care at all whether or not his words came out harshly.

"I'm saying I don't want you to go through trouble with your friends just for me."

"Hey you're my friend too, remember that." Kai reminded him calmly, staring at the ground in front of him as he spoke, obviously avoiding eye contact during a conversation like this.

Tala sat up, leaning back just slightly, putting his weight on his arms where his hands gripped the sheets behind him to support himself, "I know but they're a greater part of your life, I don't want you to lose them over me."

Kai calmed down completely, turning to stare at the ceiling for only a second before looking over at Tala, his short pause gaining his attention, "I very highly doubt I'll lose anyone, just leave it all up to me, be yourself and it'll be fine."

Tala turned over onto his stomach, resting his head on his arms while exhaling, "I hope you're right." He mumbled.

---Later---

Kai looked up from the newspaper when he heard a light knock on the bedroom door, "Yeah?" he called.

Upon opening the door Kyoshi and Sakura stood there, "Hey." Tala greeted them, sitting up and smiling at the two.

Sakura, always one to get straight to the point, continued to look on at them seriously, "I'm making breakfast, you two want some?" she asked them, a very small degree of kindness in her tone.

Kai put down the newspaper and slid off the bed, "I'll help." He offered, leaving the room with her to go to the kitchen.

Kyoshi smirked suddenly, jerking a thumb over his shoulder in the direction the other two went, "Should I be worried?" he asked.

Tala shook his head, standing up and walking to the foot of the bed, "I don't think so." He answered, giving him a sincere smile before staring down at the ground.

The old vampire nodded and twiddling his thumbs at first he gestured to Tala's shoulder, "How's your shoulder now?" he asked suddenly, sounding like his usual concerned-self.

"Much better, thank goodness." Tala replied, rubbing the back of his shoulder lightly, feeling the stitches through the thin fabric of his t-shirt.

"Keep it dry, and it'll be fine, it shouldn't take long to heal." Kyoshi informed him, leaned back against the wall by the door.

The youngest nodded, smiling back with a thanks shining in his eyes before standing up, "Let's go see what the other two are making." He told him, smiling as he walked past him and out the door.

The two walked into the kitchen, joining the other two as Saku placed another plate of a well-made English breakfast down onto the table. "Bon appetite." Sakura told them, turning and leaving the room.

All three males sat down at table and began eating the home-made meal without hesitation before Tala looked up and glanced over at Kyo, thinking for a second before speaking, "Isn't she going to eat anything?" he asked him, a tint of concern and wonder in his voice.

Kyoshi shook his head, not looking up from his food, and answered him casually, "She doesn't eat much, she's more…mind over matter, she'd be starving, then she pictures a large burger in her head and suddenly she's too bloated to eat any food that's set in front of her."

The older Russian grunted, gaining the other two men's attention, "If she keeps doing that she's going to end up a corpse." He commented once he got both their attentions.

"It would explain why she's so skinny though." Tala mumbled.

Kyo smiled, "It's not anorexia or anything, and it's under complete control, I make sure she eats enough and that she eats healthily. There's nothing to worry about." He assured them, a smile on his lips.

"Who's worrying?" Kai asked, raising his eyes and looking at Kyoshi from across the table.

Tala turned to Kai and looked a tad…upset again, "I was, up until a minute ago." He answered Kai's rather rhetorical question.

Kyoshi laughed at the two and their quiet bickering, standing up as he lifted his plate and walked to the sink and put it there, "Believe me when I say that there's nothing wrong with her, aside from her occasional drinking problems."

"Drinking problems?"

Kyo turned back around, leaning his back against the counter as he crossed his arms, "Her worst habit is drinking a little too much, she used to have a hangover every morning for about two years but since we've been having more live shows she's cut down on it."

Tala sighed and turned round so that he could look up at Kyo, "Why do I get this sinking feeling that she really doesn't care about what happens to her?" he asked him, some of his old cold and serious character from the past kicking in again.

Kyo's eyelids closed over his dark blue eyes, smirking as he lowered his head slightly and answered him, "That's probably because your sinking feeling is right. She's reckless for her own safety when she fights, she talks her opponents down while risking her own safety but she doesn't care because 90 of the time she's got a back up plan, she drinks like crazy, her stage presence is amazingly drastic down to her head-banging and she'll risk her own safety for a show and let's not forget the fact that, she's engaged to and sleeping with, a vampire." He rounded off casually.

That last fact caught Kai's attention quickly and looked up at Kyoshi a little wide-eyed, "Engaged too?" he asked.

"As of a couple of months ago, yeah, we're engaged." Kyoshi laughed quietly once he'd opened his eyes and took in their facial expressions, "It's not as strange as it sounds." He told them.

Slightly shocked looks took over both the two mortals faces, "So do all vampires you know marry mortal teenagers?" Kai asked, a decent amount of humour in his voice.

Kyoshi smiled and rolled his eyes at the question, "Fine so it's not so normal but at the moment neither of us seem to care about what's normal or not." He defended themselves, pushing himself away from the counter.

The Russian captain shrugged, Kai's usual coldness being hard to shake off, "You two can do what you like, your lifestyles don't really affect mine so what you do is none of my business."

Kyo smirked and rested against the exit of the kitchen for a second, "That's the smartest thing you've said this whole time I've known you." He informed him, glaring at Kai for a second before leaving the room.

"Wow you were nice to him." Tala mumbled sarcastically, turning back around to finish off the last bit of his breakfast.

Kai went back to his own food, not making eye contact with his friend as he shrugged, "I was supportive."

Tala smirked, "Thank goodness you don't have the ability to change." He commented, getting up.

Usually Kai would have taken a comment like that as a compliment, but 'not having the ability'? That just didn't sit right with him, "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, looking up hurriedly from his food.

"You don't want to change, so you won't, which is a good thing on the most part." Tala told him, following Kyoshi's exit.

**---Later---**

The two Russian bladers sat in the living room, both of them watching their beyblades that spun gracefully on the coffee table, the bit-beasts needing the bit of exercise while their owners communed with them on recent happenings, voicing their own opinions and everything they'd neglected to say sooner. Luckily, all of their opinions where in favour of getting to know their current care givers, which meant that the two teenagers didn't need to ponder on their trust for much longer. So occasionally Tala and Kai would look over at each other and comment about how the other two wouldn't be so bad to allow help from. That was, until Sakura walked through the living room in a rushed pace cursing heavily while running.

Both bladers had lost their concentration at the sight of that and their blades stopped spinning as they rushed up and followed her into the kitchen. They watched as she clapped a cloth over her mouth that suddenly absorbed visible blood. Tala looked on shockingly, "What happened?" he asked blankly.

Saku prepared a glass of water and moved the cloth away from her mouth, sipping the water slowly before spitting out the red liquid on the side of the sink. At that moment Kyoshi entered the room, well more like just stood in the doorway but enough for Kai and Tala to notice him and a bitter comment setting itself in Kai's mouth, "When I found out you were a vampire and you two made out all the time, it made me wonder if he ever sliced off your tongue with those fangs of his." He said to Sakura, monotonously, naturally.

The girl raised her eyes from her drink and glared at the Russian angrily, "He didn't bite my tongue, the screw cut my tongue when I was putting my piercing back in."

"Who knew there was so much blood in a human tongue?" Tala winced.

"Not Sakura, apparently." Kai mumbled to himself.

"How about I pierce your tongue and you see how it feels?" Sakura shot at him bitterly, flames blazing in her eyes, stepping forward threateningly.

Kyoshi pushed himself off the wooden doorframe of the kitchen and walked over to her, "No sense getting worked up." He told her, resting both hands gently on her cheeks. "So where's the stud?" he asked her.

Sakura slipped her hand across the counter and handed him the small silver stud, "Good luck." She muttered, slipping her tongue out of her mouth.

Kyo smirked at her words while he put the piercing back in, "You'd have a lot less trouble putting this in if you stopped taking it out so much." He informed her humorously, giving her a hard hit on the cheek once she was done.

"Shut up." Saku told him, almost playfully, before walking out of the room, sticking her tongue out at Kai as she passed by him.

The older Russian smirked at that act and leaned back against the wall, "Her childishness amazes me sometimes." He told Kyo informatively.

The kind-hearted vampire couldn't help but chuckle quietly, "Think about this for a second Kai, maybe it's good to be childish once in a while." He watched as Kai didn't answer and the vampire shook his head, contentment on his features as he tried to hold it back, then walked out of the kitchen to join his fiancé.

Tala took the opportunity to comment wildly, turning to Kai with a smirk, "Now that's one reason why I get on well with him, he's just really really good at putting you in your place." He just enjoyed rubbing these kinds of things in Kai's face, purposely to watch him get a little frustrated, or just take some shots to his pride for his own entertainment, only joking around naturally.

As expected, Kai just grunted, crossed his arms and turned and went back into the living room. He picked up his beyblade from the coffee table and placed it back into his trousers pocket for safekeeping. A moment later Tala joined him, follow his friend's example and keeping close contact with his blade, his other close friend. "Don't take anything to heart, Kai, you know I'm only joking a little." He told him after a moment of silence, his tone of voice held with a hint of apology in it.

"I know." Kai returned, his own voice just releasing a small amount of…frustration? Or maybe just a little bit of anxiety?

The sound of it dawned something new upon Tala's thoughts, ignoring his bit-beasts words of reassurance just before he decided to speak in a quiet questioning tone, "Is something bothering you?"

Kai had his pride to maintain but his reply didn't depend on that this time, it depended more on himself as he'd tried hard to convince himself nothing was on his mind within the past few days, "No, nothing at all."

"You know…" Tala started silently, "The more you say that nothing's wrong, the more likely something is in fact bothering you." He pointed out smartly. Despite his ingenious assumption, he said everything with caution, up until now he had his friend close to him and he didn't wish the lose the friendship they had. At the same time, he couldn't stop the sudden bit of worry about his friend that flustered in him lately. The more Kai worried about Tala, the more Tala worried about him, it was a vicious and painful cycle.

"I'm your friend Tala. I'm not one of your team mates."

"Well…if you ask me…"

Kai interrupted before he could continued, "Which I didn't."

The ex-Blitzkrieg boy's captain closed his eyes, tolerating Kai's interruption, "If you ask me you're both a friend and a team mate, in which both cases I have the right to worry."

Kai's eyes opened and shifted slightly to the side to glance at his friend with a glare, "What gives you a reason to worry?" he asked, cold as always, clearly not caring that his friend was only being his kind-hearted self.

Tala got up and walked over to the window, opening it very lightly, not wanting any sunlight to come inside the room in case Kyoshi walked back down the hall, "You're quiet…" he began, letting the outside heat from the sun grace over his pale arm, "And not that kind of quiet that I'm used to getting from you…it's a worrying kind of quiet." He rested his forehead against the warm glass, suddenly he didn't mind the heat so much, "You see me worrying about the future and you worry about me, you worry about ways to protect me."

His friend smirked, "You got all that from silence?" he asked him, getting off the sofa and approaching him.

The red-head pulled back together the fabric of the curtains and stepped back, turning to Kai, "Apart from some rude orders and lectures, I lived in silence." He sounded so emotionless suddenly, sounding so persistent despite the younger being less in control. After a while he'd seemed to have forgotten his capabilities and surpassed them to go back to his old demanding self.

"All I am is worried about you getting hurt when we don't know what we're up against." Kai placed a hand on Tala's fragile shoulder, shaking gently while staring him in the eye, "I'm fine though." He assured him.

The youngest shrugged his friend's hand off of him and walked past him back to the sofa, sitting down he tilted to the side slightly so he could rest against the pillows propped up against the armrest. Luckily for him Sakura and Kyoshi entered the room a second later which didn't give him enough chance to acknowledge Kai's last words. The two looked into the direction of the older vampire and singer, Kyo stopping in the doorway to watch as his fiancé rushed to the desk and pulled out her gun and fit it in the back of her trousers in a hurry. "Where are you rushing off to?" Kai asked her, blinking in surprise at her quick pace as he watched her pick up a backpack from by the sofa and onto her shoulder.

Sakura looked into the mirror, brushing aside a strand of hair, "Band practice." She replied in the meantime.

Kai raised an eyebrow at her even though she couldn't see him at the time, jerking his thumb in Kyo's direction, "Without your guitarist?" he asked her.

"Yeah." Kyoshi agreed, glaring at her confusedly and crossly, Saku clearly seeing his reflection in the mirror.

The girl in question turned back around, gripping her backpack strap tightly in her hand, "We're just going over some things, we can handle one practice without you." She started another quick pace forward, gave Kyoshi a kiss on the corner of his mouth before he could protest and rushed out the door in too little time for anyone else to say anything.

Tala smiled, burying his face into the pillow for a second to wipe sleep out of his eyes, "You need to come to some sort of agreement between the two of you if you intend of not making fools of yourselves while we're here." He joked quietly to the vampire.

Kyo resisted laughing, it being evident on his features, "Sorry, we're not used to having people in here. Whenever people are over here they don't stay for very long." He gave them a small sincere smile, shrugging sadly, "Having you two here is one of the best things that has happened in a while."

"Yeah, being engaged to a girl like Sakura could kill anyone."

Kyoshi finally allowed himself a quiet laugh and walked down the hall, "I'll be in the basement if you need anything." He called back to them.

Kai smirked and turned back to the sofa and his smirk suddenly dropped, watching as Tala nuzzled his face deeper into the pillow, "Kai…" he called quietly, "I'm tired." He complained with a sigh.

Kai walked closer to his friend, sitting in the armchair not far from the sofa, "Get some sleep then." He told him, matter-of-factly. Watching intently, it seemed as though his friend had taken in his words instantly, slowly but steadily falling asleep on the sofa, slowly curling up for some body heat. The sinking feeling of something being wrong with the boy persisted upsettingly in the older Russian's heart, a frustrating feeling for him to deal with. Footsteps were heard coming down the hall again; strange considering Kyoshi said he'd be downstairs and Sakura had left the house earlier. On the other hand, Kyoshi was still the one that walked quietly back down the hall, "I thought you were going to be downstairs."

Kyoshi huffed, frustration more than evident on his features and in his voice, "I think Sakura took my cigarettes from my pocket." He grumbled, feeling Kai's eyes on him when he stormed into the living room, walked to the desk and rummaged at the back of it to look for a box from his newly-moved stash. He exhaled a breath of relief when he found one, then walked back into the direction of the teens as he slipped a cigarette out, "What's with him?" he asked, gesturing to Tala.

The only conscious Russian avoided eye contact with the vampire currently, just staring at his friend with his arms still crossed while answering in that usual monotonous and uncaring tone, "He was feeling tired so I told him to get some more sleep."

By now the twenty-one or so, year old vampire had lit the cigarette and bathed in the calm feeling he got from it, "Is he ill?" he asked him.

"No…he's fine." Kai really wished that his words were the right ones and that Tala really was just fine, but at the time he really wasn't sure of anything; either way though, it would have probably led him to the same answer anyway.

Kyoshi, being the smart vampire with acute hearing that he was, heard a slight hitch in the boy's voice and walked in front of him, still half turned to look at Tala, "Kai, I was the one that stitched up that cut on the back of his shoulder last night, if there's something that you're not telling me…" His voice died down at the end of that in an almost worried tone, one that Kai was quick to interrupt to.

"Last night he complained about feeling light-headed with an upset-stomach but he slept through the night just fine, this morning nothing was wrong but now he just felt tired."

'So much for my time to relax.' Kyo taught to himself. Tossing the box onto the coffee table and the cigarette perched on the side of an ashtray as he walked to the sofa and knelt down beside it. It took him a minute to take in the closer sight of the youngest boy of the house and bit down on his own lip a second before brushing away a strand of red-hair, "Anaemia maybe?" he asked, looking back at him.

A tad of confusion hit Kai suddenly, "You think so?" he got off the armchair and walked to were the other two were and knelt down not far from Kyoshi, asking surprisingly.

Kyo shrugged and stood up, picking up the cigarette and standing by one of the windows, "It's normal from some blood loss and unconsciousness; we don't know how long he was out cold yesterday, the cut didn't help obviously and if I recall correctly he's had some operations recently, right?"

It seemed nothing the boy said could not surprise him at the moment, "Yeah, how'd you know?" he asked.

Really, anything Kyoshi said, Kai would be surprised at, "Tala told me…believe it or not he's open about it and it's a very good thing."

Kai wanted a desperate sudden change of subject but still voicing at least some of his on-going concerns and asked his casually as though their subject had never changed at all, "You think I should drag him to a doctor?"

The night-creature shook his head, "Give him some time, maybe his body is just trying to adjust to some changes."

"You seem to be very knowledgeable on the subject." Kai commented towards him, "Sucking the blood out of mortals makes you an expert on the human body?" he asked, obviously some of his distrust still there but relaxed slightly when he sat back in the armchair again.

Kyoshi chuckled quietly, putting out his cigarette, "Hardly." He replied, sitting cross-legged on the ground, "But if you must know, I was studying medicine just before I…died, if that's what you want to call it."

"From a Japanese rocker at night to a med student during the day, why do I see something strange about that?"

"Possibly, you watch too many movies?"

Kai smirked, "I wouldn't call the news a movie." He spoke softly, expecting the vampire to hear him.

"You only watch the news? That's sad."

"For the love of all things good, stop having petty arguments." Tala growled quietly and sleepily from his place on the sofa, turning over slightly with some discomfort.

Kyoshi got off the ground again, picking up his box from the coffee table and jerked his head slightly for Kai to follow him so they wouldn't disturb their friend's sleep. A little hesitantly Kai took a last glance at his friend before following the vampire into the next room. He sat down at the foot of the bed, turning and crossing his legs to be able to look at the other male, who was smoking yet again and polluting the bedroom air.

"You really should stop taking so many of those." Kai told him suddenly, taking the vampire by about as much surprise as he'd got him.

The blonde looked up at him, raising his eyebrows at him, "I don't see you as someone to be concerned about these things."

"You can't die so you're the least of anyone's concerns, but your…fiancé can and I highly doubt that you want to send her to an earlier grave than she's already headed for."

"Since when are you concerned about her?"

Kai shrugged, sighing with annoyance, "Tala just told me I should be nice."

The only reply Kyoshi could give him for the first minute but then added, "I'll bet it's killing you." He put out the cigarette in the ashtray on his nightstand, then sitting back comfortably against some pillows.

"Believe me when I say it's nothing personal."

Kyoshi nodded in understanding, smiling softly, "I see you as an untrusting character, I'm not surprised that you're like this and you're just trying to protect yourself and your friend, in a world like this that's the way things should be."

Kai found himself nodding at the blonde's words without he himself knowing he was doing, he smirked suddenly and locked eyes with the male in front of him, "You're certainly more understanding than Sakura was, she seemed like she was in a real rush to get us to trust her." He caught himself saying the truth to him, and he didn't mind saying it out aloud.

"She lives in a rush, she's always running from one place to another, from one task to another, from one victim to another but most of all, from one gunfight to another. She really doesn't want her lifestyle, a lifestyle she actually enjoys, to hurt some innocent people. Time is of the essence in general; to her it's ten times that." Steadily memories of when Sakura and Kyoshi had first started out filled the male's minds and the explanation made more sense to him now than it did before. "She's really not that bad of a person." He added finally, nodding his head to back up his words.

Kai shrugged, placing his hands by his sides to support himself, "Well she has both you and Tala convinced so she really can't be all that bad."

It was funny, even when the Russian was even trying to be slightly kind, he could still hold his cold and monotonous tone of voice. Was he that incapable of showing some kindness to someone he wasn't directly close to?

"You and her seem to be in similar situations…" Kyoshi began slowly.

The sound of that, even just the tone suddenly made him a little wary, 'That's the kind of tone I use with the team…' he commented to himself in his mind, "Where are you going with this?" he asked.

Kyoshi pushed himself off the comfortable pillows, crossing his legs and resting his arms on his knees, "You and her both deal with the same things in a way. I'm a lot like Tala at times, that's why we probably get along so well, and you and Sakura have the same positions and roles and clearly, she's dealt with me for so long that maybe she can help you."

"Help me with what? Things with Tala and me are fine."

Kyoshi glared at him, opposing to raise his eyebrow at that very untrue comment, "If things between you keep going like this then you're going to drive the both of you off cliffs to your deaths."

Kai returned that death glare, his deeper and sharper than the others from the years of practice he'd had in comparison to the more gentler boy, "I'd rather pretend as though this has nothing to do with the two of you and Tala and I can sort everything out by ourselves."

Now little hints of frustration were really starting to grow on Kyo, and very rarely did he let someone else's action bring up anger or frustration but this time he felt it enough and couldn't hold it back, "You're thinking about yourself, and not about him." He retorted rudely.

"Hey, I don't tell you how to do your job." Kai spat rudely at him, clearly not being phased by the fact that Kyoshi could kill him within a second.

"Not yet at least, and I'm only saying this to help the both of you." Needless to say that Kyoshi had a very gentle and caring character, but with gentle and caring characters there always comes a lot of hate, strange but true. When someone is as caring as this vampire was, naturally there are people that anger him, the kind of people that weren't as sensitive as he was to others. Two things he hated the most were, family members who saw it as alright to rape their own children and family members, and people who chose to listen and make decisions based on only their own feelings, rather than thinking about what was right for their loved ones.

"Then don't help us, get rid of Hana to protect Tala and then we can act as though we've never met." Kai got off the bed, turning and heading back for the door to join his friend in the living room again, refusing to argue pointlessly any longer.

"Kai don't be like that." Kyoshi called after him in an upset and complaining tone. He fell backwards abruptly into the cushions, exhaling exhaustedly, "Do I have a death wish or something?" he asked himself silently.

**---Three Hours Later---**

Tala walked pacefully down the stairs into the basement, looking around from one side of the room to the other for the friendly vampire. He stood on the stone floor at the bottom of the staircase, looking around from there as he couldn't see his friend anywhere in the room. 'Where could he be? He couldn't have left.' He thought to himself. He was right though, the sun outside was still far too bright for him to have left the house, and he was no where to be seen upstairs. "Kyoshi." He called out quietly.

"Yeah?" Kyoshi answered him, standing behind him.

Tala spun round, looking up at the slightly taller boy, "Where did you come from?" he asked hurriedly.

"There's a sofa underneath the staircase, I was lying down." Kyoshi replied normally, pointing over his shoulder, "Sorry, I startled you." He apologized sincerely, walking past him and to the desk at the end of the room.

"You didn't really startle me with sneaking up like that, you startled me because I thought you'd gone outside." Tala walked up to him, standing by his side over his shoulder as he stared down at him.

"I've been inside long enough to learn not to make that mistake, I assure you." Kyoshi picked up the pen that had been left on the desk and let it entwine through each of his fingers as he leaned back in his chair and turned to look at Tala, "So what brings you to my hell-hole?" he asked, smirking.

Tala chuckled quietly at the question but answered anyway, "Kai's in a bad mood so I thought I'd come find you and see if you wanted to talk for a while."

"You're asking me if I want a decent conversation with someone who isn't afraid of me?" Kyoshi asked him sceptically.

"So it was a stupid question?"

The smiling vampire nodded in reply, adding, "Very." He took in the soft smile that suddenly graced over Tala's lips, he liked it, getting to watch someone that was okay around him created a great feeling, some hope that he wasn't entirely a monster to all. He turned away, smiling privately as he pulled a chair closer to the desk and brushed some books off it, "Take a seat."

Obligingly, Tala did as he was requested of and in the meantime took a short glance at everything on the desk, "So what are you doing down here?" he asked, making eye contact again.

Kyo looked at the pages that were scattered across his desk, placing his hands on one of the sheets at first before scratching the back of his head, a little ashamed, "Originally…I was doing some lyric writing."

Tala smirked at the sudden shame on the boy's features and asked curiously, "Originally?"

"I got bored and tired, so sue me."

"Well I won't but if the lyric writing is your job then they others might."

Kyoshi shook his head, turning entirely to his work and picking up the pages, tapping the bottom against the table to make them all in line with each other, "Half the stuff I write I never put forward to them."

Now wasn't that something confusing for Tala? "Why not?" he asked, a slightly puzzled look on his face.

"Some things I'd prefer if I kept to myself."

"You sing too don't you?"

Kyoshi looked over at him, suspicions on his mind, "Yeah, I do. Why do you ask?"

"There was this one song I heard…it was on your player last time and the singer sounded a lot like you."

Kyo's eyes turned to look at the ground, turning his head away so much so that his blonde hair shadowed his eyes, he spoke softly a second later, more in a requesting tone than otherwise, "I'd prefer it if we discussed that another time."

Now wasn't the day full of surprises, Kyoshi who was usually so open with Tala just shut him out and kept something of his personal life to himself. Of course Tala didn't think that that was wrong, there was a lot that he kept from Kai but having Kyo do that to him was different to say the least. Nevertheless, Tala didn't mind and past it off easily, "Sure." He shrugged.

**A/N: Well that's another chapter for…well whoever is actually reading. This chapter was a little more boring than all the others but I tried my best on it. Also, forgive me if there are words that should be in bold or in italic and isn't for today, my reason being that every time I write a chapter on my aunts computer, when I hit save the whole chapter deletes itself and when I tried to recover it the chapter was in a mess and sadly, I was lazy and didn't have the energy to go through everything again and fix them. Forgive my laziness, I have now learnt not to ever write chapters on my aunt's computer again. Please leave a review and tell me what you think. Take care everyone!**


	12. Dreams

_**Chapter 12**_

Nostalgia. That was the one word that currently described the burning feeling in the vampire's cold heart. He paused his breathing for just a second, returning it to a decent pattern to get the irritating hitch out of his pattern of breathing. Already an irritating stinging could be felt in his eyes, in result having to close his eyes to hold it back. He shook his head of all feeling, looking up at the red-head with some sadness in his eyes, a small spark of happiness in there to glaze over the painful feelings, "At this rate Sakura and I will tell you a lot about ourselves, but not for now."

Tala sat up straight suddenly and shook his head at the sound of that, "You don't need to tell us anything. Besides, as far as Sakura is concerned us being here is strictly professional."

"Clearly, you don't know me very well." Sakura surprised them in speaking from her place, sitting at the bottom of the stairs. She waited till both pairs of eyes were on her before she decided to get up, she was one for big entrances apparently. She walked up to them, handing Kyoshi a glass vial between her three fingertips as she looked down at Tala to add, "With me, things don't usually remain just professional, I'm human and get attached to people."

Kyoshi though just put the vial on the desk, gaining a small glare from Sakura and a sudden innocent look from Tala, not knowing what was going on. "What?" Kyoshi asked her, trying to ignore the glare that was burning into his skin already.

"Drink up." Sakura instructed quickly and harshly.

Kyo gave her a sad resisting look, one she could read clearly as though they were black words on a white page, a look of fear and pleading for her not to make him. Tala turned to look at Sakura's fading glare and tapped her arm to get some attention, "What's wrong?"

Saku looked at him hurriedly once she felt the light tap on her arm, softening her look on him as she replied while still glancing at Kyo, "He doesn't want to drink the blood with you here because he's afraid you'd think its disgusting." She informed.

"Believe it or not, I have a high tolerance for looking at blood."

Kyo slipped the bottle off the table with a frustrated exhale, glaring down at it, "Really? Because I've been having to drink this stuff for ages and I still can't get used to it."

"There's a bit of a difference with looking at blood and having to drink it." Tala pointed out smartly.

Kyoshi pulled off the cap and drank the liquid in a hurry, wincing after as he felt the horrible taste go down his throat, "Yeah and these days I can do neither properly." He mumbled carelessly once he could speak again. He looked up again, ready to hand the glass bottle back to Sakura but as quick as the girl had come she was gone again. He just put it on the table instead and wiped his eyes of tiredness, "Great, now I'm hungry." He muttered to himself.

"And tired looks like it." Tala added, standing up. "Let's go back upstairs, you can get something to eat and go to bed then."

Kyoshi stood up and raised an eyebrow at the younger boy, "You really think Saku just gave me blood so that I can go to bed? No way, we have another gig to perform tonight and she doesn't want me collapsing…well, during the show at least, then after I can do what I like." He gave Tala's saddening look a warm smile, placing a hand on one of the boy's shoulders, "Go upstairs, get yourself something to eat and I'll get some practice in, I'll be upstairs soon."

The Russian just shrugged off the hand, still not covering up his worry before he turned and walked away, hurrying up the stairs and shutting the door behind him. He walked quietly to the kitchen, taking no notice of Sakura who was sitting at table with her guitar on her lap. While he made himself a cold drink he could suddenly feel Saku's cold gaze on him and then a quiet sound as the guitar was placed on the ground by her chair, "I'm gone for a few hours and suddenly everyone is depressed, what happened?" she was demanding as always and the sudden height she had on Tala was a lot when he turned round to look at her.

Tala stared aimlessly at the ground, closing his bright blue eyes as he counted things off in his mind, just before he began a reply for her, "Kyoshi suggested to Kai that he'd talk to you about something and that got Kai angry and in a bad mood. Kyoshi isn't feeling well and I think I said something that hurt him and I don't know if he'll last tonight and I'm worried about both of them."

Saku walked back to where she sat and took her seat again, pushing out another chair and indicating for him to sit down which he did willingly. "Let's start with this…what did Kyoshi want Kai to talk about to me?" she sat back at an angle so that one of her arm's rested on the back of the chair and her back against the wall.

"I don't know, all I understood was that it was for some advice but that's all I got."

The raven-haired girl shifted uncomfortably in her seat, "Okay, so what did you say to Kyo?"

Tala rested his head in his hands, exhaling uncomfortably, "I didn't mean to say anything wrong." He began slowly.

"What did you say?" Saku demanded.

"Just that I'd heard him singing on one of the tracks when he'd leant me his player." On hearing the answer Sakura stood up, walking past Tala to the kitchen counter as she sighed heavily. He looked back at her with a rather apologetic look on his features, "I didn't know it was a delicate subject."

The girl's next action, placing both hands on his broad shoulders and squeezing them tightly, took him by surprise at first and then she shook her head a bit, "I know you didn't, don't worry."

When someone as stoic as her decides to be as comforting and caring as that you tend to realize that something is very wrong and this, being about someone Tala actually cared about, only made him worry a little more. "He's fine though, right?" he turned round to look at her while asking.

Sakura let go of him, apparently she was starting to freak herself out with her own kindness towards the teenager, "I'll go talk to him but I'm sure he's fine." She pulled all her things off the table and her guitar off the ground, walking to the doorway before turning back to him, "We're working tonight so help yourself to something. If there's nothing you like then call for something and come find me in the basement for money." She gave another small smile and left the room to finish off her job.

Just at that moment Kai walked into the room, moving to the side slightly so he wouldn't hit Saku or her guitar just outside the kitchen. The older Russian entered the room with a confused look on his face as he watched Tala slump slightly in his chair, resting both his arms on the desk and his chin on his forearms. "What's the matter with everyone?" he asked him.

Tala smirked half-heartedly, "It's funny…I was just asked that same question a few minutes ago." He commented.

"A repetition of answer would be nice." Kai said coldly, walking up beside his friend, resting both his hands on the table and shifting his weight onto them.

"Something's wrong with Kyoshi and it's my fault."

Kai crouched down slightly, supporting himself with his forearms on the table, "What the hell gives you that idea?" he asked seriously.

"I asked Kyoshi about something I'd heard on his player and apparently it irritated him."

"What do you mean?"

Tala shrugged slightly, thinking for only a second before replying, "He just shut himself in and didn't want to answer, then he seemed like he was going to start crying any second."

Kai grunted turning his head away, "Sounds a little weak if you ask me." He mumbled rudely.

The red-head didn't seem impressed though, actually quite frustrated at the sound of it and kicked Kai, "He was weak but not for the reasons you think, it was the blood loss and he couldn't handle it." He defended, glaring down at the fallen friend of his.

Kai pushed himself off the ground, settling himself against the wall with his arms crossed before continuing where they'd left off, "And you're stupid enough to believe that he got upset because of what you said to him?"

"His mood change was after I asked him!"

The eldest was being stared at intently for an answer and all he did was shrug under the glare at first, "Which really doesn't mean all that much." He commented.

Tala shook his head, really not understanding anything of it, resting his head in both his hands, "I really don't understand the way you think, Kai."

"The _right_ way," Kai informed him, then thought for another second, "Usually." He added to his statement to make it a little more plausible.

The red-head stood up, still facing Kai's direction as he leant back against the kitchen table, "I know what I saw…he changed…" he stated calmly. He glanced up and finally made eye contact with his friend again, silently pleading in his own eyes that Kai would understand what he was trying to say and believe him. He was on the verge of saying something else but he couldn't really bring himself to say anything. Luckily for him by the way Kai's expression softened up it seemed like he didn't even need to say anything else to get him to understand, it just happened this time and his features had said it all for him.

Interruptions, don't you just hate them?

At that moment Sakura walked back into the room, leaning against the doorframe while giving Tala a slightly upset look, "I don't know what you were saying about Kyoshi being upset, he really is feeling just fine."

You know those times where you just feel like the whole world is against you when you strongly believe in something? That's just about how Tala felt at that moment, two people suddenly contradicting what he felt so strongly about and saw with his own eyes. He wished desperately he could just shrug it all off but found he just couldn't so he just pushed himself off the surface he had been against and mumbled something that he was going to go lie down for a while before he left the sight of the other two.

Kai turned to her, giving her a rather unpleased look before voicing his concerns to her in his usual monotonous voice with a tint of coldness, "You know that if you keep covering up things he knows that he saw, then you're going to drive him crazy, or at least make him think he's going crazy."

"I'm not covering up anything." Sakura told him dully.

"I'm starting to go with Tala's side of the story, and if he thinks he saw Kyoshi upset then I believe him."

The girl pulled her dark hair to fall over one shoulder as she walked over to a stool at the table, taking a seat but still keeping her eyes on Kai's form by the door, her hands clasped together on the table in an almost business-like manner. "Kai, understand that I'm a well-trained killer, I cover up things every day and I have yet to be caught, do you really think that if I were covering something up it would be this easy for you to figure it out?" she asked, waiting a moment before tilting her head to the side for an answer. She watched for another second as Kai didn't give her an answer, she was hoping for that the whole time, naturally Kai wouldn't be able to answer her half-rhetorical question. She smirked, balancing backwards on her stool for her upper back to be resting against the wall, digging her hands in her jeans pockets at the same time, "Besides…" she began, calling for Kai's attention again, "Tala seems like a good person, I wouldn't do anything to jeopardise his mental health anymore than what's already been done to him."

A part of Kai felt good hearing that, because with her tone of voice and even her change in posture, it gave her a laid back edge to her voice, an honesty to her which was a degree of comfort that Tala and him where both in safe hands. Another part of him seemed a little angered though, it seemed as though everyone in the house knew how Tala was feeling except him. Now the older Russian knew for a fact that Tala had had no time or trust in the girl whatsoever to have told her anything and Kyoshi wouldn't have said much, even out of the little bit he knew so what was it that made her so confident in all her silent theories?

"What makes you think you know 'what's already been done to him'?"

Saku allowed a small self-assured smirk onto her young face, originally lowering her head to hide it, the thumb nail of her right hand gently lining her lower lip for a moment before she looked back up at him to reply to his question, "You can let your past make you, or break you and your friend has chosen his to do a little bit of both to him. When someone has something terrible happen to them in their past, there isn't a sure-way that they'll go, they can either choose to be the kindest people alive, or they could choose to be the cold-hearted people with untouchable prides. Now Tala has watched you, he's watched you make your mistakes because of your pride and he's making sure that the same things don't happen to him."

For some reason, despite her explanation being a little eye-opening to a degree it really was a stab to the heart to just about anyone who'd had that told to them. Obviously, not Kai though, as much as Kai had feelings this wasn't one of those things that was going to get to him so easily.

"Really Kai…" Sakura began again, making direct taunting eye-contact with him, "Be proud of yourself, you may have just stopped your friend from making the biggest mistake of his life."

Kai really couldn't be proud of himself for that though, at the time his mind was wandering to all his actual mistakes and wishing he could fix each of them, or at least make each one have a less painful blow to his pride. Then again that was probably the feeling that Sakura wanted to get across to him. Once he looked up again the girl was standing at the kitchen counter, raising a glass of water to her lips to take a sip of it before he interrupted her with his sudden question, "So which one are you?" He watched as the girl raised her eyebrows, giving him a questioning look as to what he was talking about so he rephrased, "Are you one of the kindest people alive or are you one of those cold-hearted people with untouchable prides?"

The raven-haired girl put her glass back down on the counter, ignoring her drying throat as she walked up to him, "I'm in the middle, because right now I'm putting my pride on the table to ask you for myself so that we can stop these pitiful arguments and put aside our distrust for one another so that we can be able to live through the coming events and cause less distress to our friends. It's obviously the coldest person with the untouchable pride that refuses acceptance of the other person, even when the other's pride has been put on the line." She gave him a moment to speak but he didn't say anything, instead they went on with a glaring contest in each others eyes up until Sakura placed a hand out in front of her for him to take. She still couldn't believe he didn't want to admit to a truce between them, she shook her head, disbelievingly dropping her hand back by her side. She walked back to the counter, picked up her glass and turned back to the exit which Kai stood by. Just as she'd begun to leave, Kai grabbed at her left hand and she looked down at it, watched as the fingers tightened around her sensitive skin for a second before he completely let go of her. She smiled honestly, glancing up at him even though he refused eye contact with her, "I'm glad you see it my way." She whispered, leaving the room a second later. Just when Kai had thought she was gone, she'd turned back and walked into the kitchen again, staring at him even though he still didn't look at her, "Kai…" she began yet again, "If it means that much to you…I'll go and talk to Tala and make sure he knows that Kyoshi is okay."

Kai turned to her, his features softening vaguely, "That would be good for him." He replied normally, nothing in his tone of voice being hindered by the sudden friendship.

Sakura smirked, almost triumphantly, "Just admit you need my help." She mumbled, walking off again before Kai could comment. The girl walked down the hall slowly, sipping her water quietly before setting the glass down on a small table outside her old bedroom. She knocked quietly on the door, leaning against it as she waited for an acknowledgment or reply of some kind. She got none of either of those so she just opened the door with no other warnings. She walked into the room, pushing the door closed behind her as she stepped up beside the bed and crouched down on the ground beside it. "Get up a second, I need to talk to you." She called to a still-laying Tala.

Sakura's voice wasn't exactly the most gentle one in the world at the time, she usually took her time to adjust from coldness to kindness but at the sound of the icy tone Tala did what was asked of him, looking at her with surprising questioning blue eyes. He watched her sigh heavily, shifting her body weight uncomfortably, "What is it?" he questioned.

Saku sat up again, sitting beside him on the bed, her hands by her side to grip the mattress, "Why are you worrying about Kyoshi so much?"

Tala shrugged slightly, he chose to avoid the question, mainly because the answer to that really wasn't the real answer that Saku had wanted from him. "I made a mistake I guess, it won't happen again."

A small explanation couldn't be avoided as much as Sakura would have just loved to have avoided another serious conversation in the day. She glanced to the side to look at any reaction of him while she spoke to him as she normally would, "Kyoshi was just getting tired, it wasn't that he didn't want to talk to you and it wasn't a personal problem, he was just feeling tired and these kind of things happen to him frequently, don't get upset if it happens around you." She didn't get any form of reaction from him, not even a word so she just smiled softly and moved on, bumping her shoulder slightly against his, "He's a great friend isn't he?" she asked him, a sweet and friendly light shining in her eyes suddenly. She watched him nod slightly, and her smile grew a little more, "Yeah, I know the feeling, the guy can make friends with anyone despite who he is and I envy that about the two of you."

"The two of us?" Tala asked confusedly.

Sakura nodded again, "You two both feel like minorities, or just that you don't feel like you make a difference but you've got such a kindness to you that you're both loved without trying." She paused for a moment and stood up, looking down at an upset-looking Tala, "Listen Tala, don't let anything that happens to Kyo get you down. The guy won't keep any of his problems away from me so if you're worried then come ask me about him before you go overboard with worrying and I'll tell you the truth."

Tala smiled up at her gently, nodding slightly, "Sure, thanks." He mumbled softly.

"Good." Sakura said curtly. She placed a quick hand on his shoulder, squeezing it gently at first before sliding it off, "Now go and get yourself something to eat, it's getting late." She instructed, making her way to her exit.

**---4am---**

Tala walked silently down the hall from his bedroom to the living room after about ten minutes after he'd heard the front door opening and closing behind the two missing accomplices. He smiled, already from the end of the hall he could see the two older teens settle on the sofa, Kyoshi's head resting comfortably in Saku's lap as he slept soundly. The red-head stepped into the room, gaining attention and a soft smile from Sakura before she looked back at the sleeping form. "You two had a really long night." Tala commented to Sakura quietly, setting himself down in the armchair not far from the sofa, smiling contently at Kyo's peaceful appearance.

Sakura smiled and nodded, still running her fingers comfortingly through Kyoshi's blonde hair. Tala was right, the two had had a very long night, directly after their set on stage Kyoshi began to feel uncomfortable, went outside to smoke and relax and never came back inside. Naturally, Sakura kept calm, which surprised both Kai and Tala immensely but neither asked questions so she didn't see any reason to explain to them what had happened. She just dropped them off at the house and left again to look for Kyoshi, finding he'd already killed someone in a cemetery and broke down with guilt from it. After that it didn't take much convincing to get him back home but he'd fallen asleep for the whole drive, then the moment they got home he was asleep again. "It's been exhausting but that's what the early morning is for." She replied simply.

Tala smirked, resting his head back tiredly, "I don't see how you manage to live like this, my ears are still ringing." He said in a complaining childish voice.

This made Sakura laugh quietly, looking up at him with a look that said 'I-told-you-so' and she was quick to rid herself of the responsibility, "I warned you that things would be loud tonight, you should have stayed in the back room like I told you to."

"There's no fun in that."

"Well there's no fun in going deaf either." Sakura retorted quietly, so as not to wake up her fiancé.

Tala gave her an agreeing look, despite how much he didn't want to agree with her in an argument he'd lose. He watched as Saku poked Kyo's cheek and he reacted to it, moving his hand up to try swat her away in the three times she did it, watching as she laughed each time he missed her. As much as Tala found the playful antics funny, he couldn't help protesting to her actions, "Poor guy, leave him alone." He told her quietly.

Sakura did as she was asked, resting her head back slightly but still running her fingers through his hair, "Ah, I don't think the guy can wake up even if he wanted to." She informed him sadly. She looked over at Tala after a moment, watching the saddening look in his eyes which made her smile kindly, "Don't worry about us, go and get some sleep." She instructed him in a soft voice, looking back down at her fiancé again, brushing the tips of his fingers against the nap of his neck.

The boy snapped his attention from Kyoshi to Sakura again, speaking quietly, "What are you going to do?" he asked.

"I'll get some sleep in a few minutes but I don't have the heart to move him."

Tala nodded a little disappointedly, getting up with an attempt to exit the room and go back to bed before he turned back to Sakura, "You need anything before I go?" he asked.

His kindness seemed to have touched Sakura, causing her to smile lightly, "I'm fine, thanks." She gave him an assuring nod and watched him leave, smiling a little more while shaking her head. She picked up a pillow from the other end of the sofa, placing it behind her head and resting back comfortably to get some sleep, wincing as she moved her stiff neck back. She very slowly slid off into a quiet sleep, the movements of her fingers still going on gently until she fell asleep completely.

_**---Dream---**_

_Kyoshi and Naomi walked down the busy streets, Naomi staring in windows while Kyoshi had his arms crossed and stared up at the sky while walking. Naomi turned to him quickly, looking up at him before grabbing onto his arm, "Takashi-san, you okay?" she asked._

"_Ah stop calling me that, I thought we were past formalities." Kyoshi said complainingly, taking her hand that was on his arm. _

"_You didn't answer my question." Naomi pointed out to him, pouting as she looked up at him with pleading of an answer in her eyes. _

"_Of course I'm fine silly, why wouldn't I be?" _

"_You know there are countless possibly reasons, Taka-san." Naomi replied, looking forward as she walked._

_Kyoshi sighed heavily, shaking his head with frustration, "Have you forgotten my name or something?" he asked rather heartlessly._

_Naomi pulled her arm out of his hurriedly, looking up at him with an upset look, "Of course I didn't forget it, we're not like we were before!" she shouted at him._

"_Ah well anything is possible, you know? Especially with you." Kyoshi shrugged, walking on. _

_Naomi grabbed his shoulder and turned him round to look at her, crossing her arms and pouting, "What the heck? Always making fun of me! Why don't you understand people's feelings at all?" she shouted and then stormed off in the other direction, leaving Kyoshi to stare in the direction where she left._

_**Next Day**_

_The brown-haired Japanese girl sat down quickly on a bench in the back yard of the school where people took their break in between classes. She sighed sadly, gripping the hem of her black skirt, sitting back and closing her eyes. She'd ignored Kyoshi all day just to get a point across to him. A moment later though something fell into her lap and she heard someone sitting beside her on the bench which caused her to open her eyes in a hurry. She looked down at her lap where a small long black case lay, she picked it up and turned quickly to Kyoshi who sat beside her, again with crossed arms staring into space. "What's this?" she asked him slowly._

_Kyoshi avoided eye contact with her, speaking calmly and coolly as he always did, "I was going to wait to give it to you tonight but I was afraid if I didn't make it up to you now then I won't be seeing you tonight." He could still feel her gaze on him after he spoke and looked away from her, "So… take a look." He encouraged her, in the meantime taking out a cigarette, holding it in his mouth and lighting it. _

_Naomi looked surprised to say the least but turned back to the box and did as she was asked of him. She lifted the lid gently, a short gasp accompanying her shocked look and widened eyes as they both fell on the thin silver chain and pendent. Four weeks ago Naomi had asked Kyoshi to go with her shopping for a birthday present for her mother and she'd mentioned that she'd wanted a necklace like the one that was now in the box in her hands. "How did you…?" she asked hurriedly, turning to him again. _

_Kyoshi smirked, that was probably the thing that made her stop her question so suddenly. He pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and turned to look at her, smiling as gentle as the look in his light blue eyes, "Did you really think I worked the extra time to avoid you or something?" he asked her, a reply in itself. He watched a small smile appear on her face when she turned back to looking at the necklace and he tossed the cigarette on the ground, stepping on it as he slid closer to her. He turned slightly to be facing her, picking up the necklace from the box and placed it around her neck, clipping it from the back for her before moving away from her again. _

_The girl pushed her brown hair to one side, smiling gently as she looked down at the pink and silver flower at the end of the thin silver chain. Her eyes shone with happiness as she looked over at him after a minute of admiring the present. She pushed her books off her lap and onto the ground, sliding closer to him on the bench and grabbing onto him in a tight hug, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, "Thank you." She whispered gently._

_**A Year Later**_

_Kyoshi walked Naomi to the front door, there the two stopped and Naomi turned round to look at him, "Are you sure you're feeling better?" she asked him a little sceptically. _

_The older blonde smiled and nodded in assurance, "Much better, thanks for coming; even though you know you didn't have to." _

_Naomi raised a delicate eyebrow at him, pretending to think for a moment, "Hmm, let me see, you were ill with a 103 fever, your parents left you alone for a week with no one to look out for you, I think it was a very good reason for me to come over and help." _

_Kyoshi rolled his eyes at the much younger girl, smiling softly as he stepped closer to her, "I'm 21 years old, I think I can take care of myself just fine." He said in a whispered voice, placing both her hands on her waist. _

_This earned him a strange look from his girlfriend who looked at him with some disbelief in her eyes, shaking her head, "21 years old and you can't take care of yourself as well as you think you can." She teased him quietly. _

"_Lucky for me, you showed up then." Kyoshi whispered softly in reply._

_Naomi laughed quietly, pulling gently out of his hold, "Quit sucking up." she advised him._

_Kyoshi pushed aside all joking for a moment, looking down at her with some worry in his eyes, "Are you going to be okay walking home in the dark by yourself?" he asked her, a lot of concern and love for her evident in those words._

"_Of course I will…I'm not a child." _

_Kyoshi shook his head suddenly with some thought, "I know well enough that you aren't a child but it's dangerous out there. I can walk you home, it'll take half an hour, my parents won't know I ever left the house and some fresh air will probably do me good." _

"_Or it'll get you into the nearest hospital bed." Naomi insisted, pushing him backwards gently. "I'll be fine, I'll call you when I get home so you know I arrived in one piece, is that okay?" she asked him._

_Anymore arguing with her really would be the end of Kyoshi, already he was burning up again and didn't both arguing with her, "Sure." He attempted shrugging off his worry, answering her dully like he didn't completely agree but had no other choice than to do so, "Be careful alright?" _

_Sweetly Naomi smiled up at him, "You know I will, you taught me well." Though Kyo seemed unimpressed by her words and she heard him just grunt quietly at her words, "You trust me don't you?" she asked whisperingly in a serious but gentle voice, stepping closer to him while she still stared up at him Kyo didn't give her a direct answer at first, looking away before looking back down at her once she placed a hand on his shoulder, that was when he nodded but in an almost uncertain manner. _

_Kyoshi gripped her shoulders gently, leaning forward and downwards, giving her a small peck on her lips before letting go of her completely, "Take care of yourself, and thanks again." _

_The girl's eyes shined happily again, "No problem, call if you ever need me." She murmured, "Now, get some rest, we start school again in a week and I don't want to have to be spending my breaks without you." She stepped closer, wrapped him in a tight embrace and let go a moment later, "I'll speak to you later." She turned round, ran to the door and as she opened it she turned to him and waved her bye with her usual innocent smile on her face. _

_Then all he could do was watch until she completely disappeared through the door way and it closed behind her slowly._

_**---End Dream---**_

Kyoshi sat up hurriedly, hot tears sliding down his heated cheeks while there were hitches in his breathing and a cough at the end to accompany it. Just behind him Sakura was slowly waking up from the sound of his outburst, looking at his back through tired eyes, "Kyoshi, what's up?" she asked exhaustedly.

The blonde turned his head to the side so he could reply to her without her noticing his tears, "Nothing, go back to sleep." He ordered.

Sakura yawned, sitting forward and taking a good look at him, despite how much he tried to avoid her eyes, "You're flushed, are you ill?" she asked.

Kyoshi shook his head bravely, breathing quickly, "I'm feeling fine." He assured her, lying through his teeth.

The two were too tired to argue, or even persist a further discussion, "Okay, just get back to sleep." Sakura sat back to how she was before, resting back on the pillow and attempting to fall asleep again.

Kyo took a deep breath, brushing his hair back once with his fingers before resting his head back down onto Saku's lap, tightening his arms around his own body for warmth. A second later he felt fingers gently caressing his hair again, an action that made another tear slip from his eye, the warm drop melting softly into Saku's jeans. "I'm glad you're still here." He mumbled softly, closing his eyes to get some sleep.

**A/N: Another chapter. Still wish I was getting more reviews, one review out of the five people who have this on their favourite list. Ah well, my one reviewer gives me reviews that are worth at least two reviews so I'm not complaining. I hope you liked this chapter, please leave a review, take care everyone! **


	13. Repairs

_**Chapter 13**_

The raven-haired killer took a crouched position by the sofa, her attention turned to her fiancé who'd still been sleeping since she'd last spoke to him earlier that morning. He was lying uncomfortably on his stomach, his head turned to face her as he continued to sleep soundly and innocently. Unbeknownst to him, Sakura gently brushed his blonde hair off his damp forehead and away from his eyes and someone else walked quietly into the room.

Sakura looked back at the person, seeing Kai there as he made his way quietly to the kitchen and she turned back to Kyoshi, "Hey Kai, can you get a cold cloth from the kitchen." She requested…strangely enough in a kind and, for Sakura, a very gentle and feminine voice.

The Russian just assumed that the tone was one she used with people when she was on good terms with them and remembering the truce they had with each other he did the favour he was asked of her, taking back to her a damp cold cloth. A little curiously, he couldn't help watching Sakura tending to Kyoshi's neck with the cloth, she was calm and in control of everything. It was a good thing she wasn't like other women, who'd just panic if something like this happened. His friend joined him in the room a second later, also joining in watching the couple.

"Is he still sleeping? I thought he'd be up by now." Tala commented, making his way to the kitchen after another moment of staring.

Sakura left the cloth resting on the back of her friend's neck, getting up and following Tala into the kitchen, feeling Kai walking close behind her, "It's only midday, to a vampire that's really early to be awake." She informed the two, jumping up onto the kitchen counter, "As much as he wants to be as human as possible, sometimes the heat just gets too much for him and he doesn't make it through the day so he just sleeps through it."

"And it's your job to make sure he lives through that sleep." Kai finished for her.

Sakura just shrugged at the ending though, giving a rather indifferent look, "It's a job that comes with being in love with a vampire." She said normally.

Kai sat down at the table, opposite where Sakura sat on the counter, "For a vampire he isn't half bad." He…complimented?

"The guy isn't bad at all…everything he's ever done all had something good come out of it." Sakura sounded calm when she said it this time, usually she would have held that stern and cold tone of hers as a sound of insistence of her opinion. This time it wasn't the case, this time it just sounded like she was voicing an opinion, that she didn't care what Kai really thought.

"He's actually really nice and fun to talk to you if you give him the chance." Tala added, a part of him wishing there'd be some sort of friendship between his oldest friend and his newest.

Kai couldn't help but smirk, it really was as though they were trying to push him into a new friendship. "You know…I have spoken to him for myself and I agree with all you're saying. You don't need to tell me."

"So why the hell have you never given him a little more respect?" Sakura asked, her mouth still gaping open slightly as she looked at him with some disbelief, a sweet but still disbelieving smile on her face.

Tala looked at Sakura, raising an eyebrow at her slowly, "You don't understand Kai very much, do you?"

Sakura shook her head, still not breaking the eye contact she had with a smirking oldest Russian, "No Tala, I really don't."

Kai almost laughed at the thought, even her expression was priceless to him and her staring into his eyes with so much disbelief was entertaining for him, "I don't see…" he began, being interrupted by a shout from the other room.

The three inhabitants of the kitchen all looked at the doorway that lead to the living room and Sakura was the first one rushing out the door and into said room. Kyoshi was sitting up with fright practically carved into his facial features, his hands gripping all the pillows that were behind him, supporting himself with his hands behind his back and his legs just apart enough to keep him from tilting sideways off the sofa. The wet cloth had been thrown enough from the sudden movement and now he was panting heavily, still unaware of the people that had ran into the room a second earlier, being unable to hear anything from the blood rushing to his head.

Sakura took in the fact that he hadn't noticed the two of them, especially when he hung his head trying to calm himself so she walked out in front of him and she still got no form of reaction from him. She crouched down, resting a forearm on her leg as she looked at him closely, hoping he could see her out from having his eyes clouded by his blonde and light brown hair. He did, raising his head shyly and fearfully to look at her; an action that caused Sakura to raise an eyebrow, "Are you okay?" she asked cautiously.

Kyoshi sighed quietly, closing his eyes, now he just knew that the other two where standing behind him if Sakura had showed up in front of him that fast, "Yeah, I'm fine, just a hot flash." He replied, loud enough for the other two behind him to hear him clearly, attempting to put their minds at ease. He got a nod from Sakura, being thankful that she understood and just let his lie pass quick enough to hide from the other two. Being grateful enough he got off the sofa, staggering at first before walking out of the room and down the hall.

"Something wrong?" Kai asked calmly, sitting on the arm of the armchair not far from the sofa.

"Never had a nightmare, Kai?" Sakura asked him sternly, standing up and walking to the exit from the room to the hallway.

"Not as bad as that." Kai mumbled to himself.

Sakura locked eyes with Tala's worried bright blue ones just before she exited the room to follow after her closest friend, she just smiled softly was already enough for him, then she felt she should add something, "I'll fix this. Don't worry." She hadn't even given her words a moment to sick into him before she left, racing down the hall out of the sights of the two worried beybladers. Yes, two. She'd seen and felt a pang of worry coming from Kai.

The assassin didn't bother checking her bedroom, she knew well-enough that he wouldn't be in there. Kyoshi knew Sakura just as well but not enough to know that Sakura was standing behind him while he was staring at something in his hand, leaning forward against his desk in the basement. She snuck up quietly behind him, crossing her arms as she caught sight of the silver and pink chain, "Thinking again?" she asked him with a sigh.

Kyoshi shut his eyes, wincing silently, "Sorry." He whispered, putting the necklace in the draw before turning to her again.

Sakura walked passed him, her eyes dragging his to look at her while she sat up on his desk, her feet up on the chair as she crossed her arms, "So blood making you think a lot again?"

"I still feel like I'm going to be sick." Kyoshi walked to the stairs, sliding onto the sofa that was underneath them, lying back and staring up at the gap of light that peeked from between the stairs from the level above.

Sakura spoke quietly and hurriedly, perfect but inaudible words, even for Kyoshi. She sighed, raising her eyes to look in his direction, even though she couldn't see him through the staircase, "I'm going to tell you the same thing I tell you every time this happens, you shouldn't let these memories break you down, you're much stronger than that and a part of you knows that."

Kyoshi felt some frustration building but he wasn't one to lash out at her when he felt these kinds of emotions, "You know…the more you comfort like this, the more miserable you make me." He told her simply, no hint at his pain in his sentence.

The girl's hair was brushed to one side of her shoulder, shrugging as she gave a faint smile that she knew he couldn't see, "Yes well, our agreement was that anything could and would happen as long as some good came out of it." She reminded him. No more words where exchanged between the two, not a sound either, just complete silence fell between them. When Kyoshi opened his eyes again he could see Sakura much closer, sitting on the staircase, an arm on a step as she looked into the gap and straight at him. "Don't be discouraged now, you've survived this before and you can do it again." She continued telling him after a moment.

"Just please shut up." Kyoshi whispered, turning over onto his stomach to avoid his fiancé's slightly worried but regularly stern gaze.

"Don't be like that…" Sakura whispered sternly. She got off the step, swinging a little on the railing and getting to the other side where Kyoshi was, "It doesn't suit you." She added finally. She tugged at his hand lightly and he sat up, giving her some room to sit down opposite him, then resting her palm gently on the side of his neck, brushing her thumb softly along his jaw line. To him it felt in the middle of heaven and hell, enjoying the comforting and gentle feelings but trying desperately to suppress the shivers and goose bumps. His pattern of breathing hitched just slightly when she rested her forehead against his, her fingers brushing the hair on the back of his neck, "Can I?" she spoke softly, innocently smiling faintly.

A pink tint lit Kyoshi's once pale cheeks, he still couldn't help but feel embarrassed around Sakura sometimes, usually when his blood consumption levels where extremely low. He nodded timidly though, and watched for just a split second as Sakura leaned in and set her lips cautiously on his. It was funny to think, she always spent so much time teasing him and treating him terribly, but when it really mattered she was the most careful person in the world with him. Of all the people that he ever encountered as a vampire, even to those who thought he was a mortal, when it came to kindness and sensitivity none of them came close to the amount she had for him. She never put it all on display but it was always there, and these short moments they had together all added together where far more than he could have ever asked from her. To him, it was a lot more than he felt he ever deserved.

At the time he'd closed his eyes to bask in the comfort and sweetness of her kiss but he could feel clear enough that she'd been pushing his mouth closer to hers, softly tickling the back of his neck with her index finger while her other arm moved around his waist. After another second into the kiss though a chill ran down Kyoshi's spine and he shied his head away, staring downwards to hide the ever-growing redness on his face.

Sakura smiled a little sympathetically, pushing back the hair that hung onto his damp forehead before giving him a quick kiss and standing up, "The others will be worried if you don't come upstairs soon. So come for lunch, then you can come back down here to relax and do what you like."

To Kyoshi, it didn't really sound like Sakura to him. Times like these could sometimes change her, some other times like these just made her coldness be emphasised. Luckily for him, this was one of those times that she was a completely different person, an even better person. Still with some shyness he looked up at her, putting on a small and brave smile as he nodded.

"You aren't going to cry now are you?" Sakura asked, teasingly with a smirk on her face, it was her idea of cheering him up…something that actually worked on some occasions.

Kyoshi laughed quietly, "No I'm not going to cry." He replied in one breath, his tone of voice attempting to imply he never would do such a thing which was total contradictory.

The girl in front of him grinned, poking him gently in the side, "You sure?" she asked him.

"I'm sure." He replied with a laugh, jerking backwards slightly to get away from her.

Sakura still smiled as she got up, grabbing onto the banister and swinging to the other side, "Lunch will be ready soon." She called to him once she arrived to the top of the stairs. She allowed the door to close behind her with a bang as she walked down the hall to the kitchen, as she walked through the living room her eyes wandered to Tala and Kai, both standing leaning against the walls on their sides on either side of the window, both occasionally drawing back the curtain and looking outside as they spoke to one another.

A quiet sigh escaped Sakura as she ran her hands under the cold water from the sink, then drying her hands as she looked out into the living room again. She moved away before the other two had time to catch her standing there, while opening the freezer tossing the cloth over her shoulder onto the table. Kyoshi walked up behind her just as she'd tossed two frozen pizzas onto the counter, "Aren't you cooking?" he asked her.

Sakura put the two into the oven, sitting down on a stool at the table, "I really can't be bothered for today." She replied, despite her best efforts a small yawn being let out as she rested a head in her hand.

Kyoshi nodded, "That's fine. I'm just going to go have a cold shower…I swear I can still feel blood on me." He told her, mumbling the last part even though he knew she still heard him.

Intent grey eyes watched as he left the room, herself feeling how life was beginning to drag at his existence, "Maybe I've been too hard on him." She muttered quietly to herself, leaning back against the wall.

_**---Flashback---**_

_The four pand members walked out into the bar just after their session, each ordering drinks of their own as Sakura had just glanced at Kyoshi who was rubbing at his left wrist, "What's up with you?" she asked, her icy tone not changing since just before their set._

_The expression Kyoshi held showed discomfort and some pain coming from his wrist, though he shook his head just lightly, "I think I hit my guitar too hard." He replied quietly, sighing shakily, "It's taking forever to heal." _

"_You're self-healing, it usually takes about five minutes to heal perfectly." Sakura pointed out._

"_It's been ten minutes already." Kyoshi mumbled to himself, resting his injured wrist comfortably onto the counter._

_Sakura's head lashed to the side, glaring at him, "Then do what we mortals do and put some ice on it!" she snapped._

_**---End Flashback- Next Flashback---**_

"_Come on, I know you've got a lot of anger cooped up into that sweet little heart of yours, now you can use it." Sakura began provoking him, standing across from him with arms crossed over her chest as steadily she spoke him into fighting her, "Hit me." She insisted._

"_I'm not." Kyoshi spoke softly, his palm feeling the wall as he backed up into the wooden walls of the basement._

"_If you don't let out the anger you have building up, then you're going to get hurt. It'll hurt much more than hitting me and to be frank, I very highly doubt you want that." _

_Kyo breathed out heavily, leaning back against the wall, gripping onto the wood as best he could, "You don't know what I want." _

_Sakura smirked, a cold-hearted persona as she took another step closer to him, "Ah but I know you don't want to cause yourself anymore pain, what's hitting me a couple of times now compared to the emotional torment you'll put yourself through later?"_

"_You're sixteen, with my strength and anger I could kill you." Kyoshi muttered helplessly. _

"_If that's what it takes then go for it." _

"_Do you have a death wish or something?" Kyoshi lashed out, tears pouring down his cheeks, "Is that it?" he asked her._

"_Possibly." Sakura stood inches away from him, not phased by his sudden outburst at her, even just before she replied._

"_Well you can forget about it, you're not using me as your way out of here." _

"_It's not my intention at all. So there's no point trying to divert the attention to me, this is about you and the pain and anger you're holding onto." _

_Kyoshi attempting to walk past her but got knocked back into the wall by a sharp blow to his shoulder, then to the back of his head when it came in contact with the wall, "I'm not holding onto anything." He growled, touching the back of his head in an attempt of searching for blood, which he found none of with luck._

"_So you mean to tell me…" Sakura began, a rather sadistic smirk growing onto her features a little more, "that the fact that I could've saved your brother from death, doesn't make you feel even slightly terrible? Not even a little angry?" _

_Kyoshi's heavy breathing paused for a second to no breathing at all, closing his eyes to calm himself enough to think clearly, "There was nothing we could've done…especially you."_

_Saku provoked him, more provocations shining in her grey eyes, "What if there was…and I just didn't tell you?"_

"_I know you better than that."_

"_That you do." Sakura nodded pausing for a moment, "So what's a punch between friends?" she asked him suddenly._

"_You're not going to get me to punch you." _

"_Yeah, I will." Sakura grabbed both his forearms and pushed him back into the wall, "If you won't start the fight then I always can." _

_**---End Flashback---**_

Sakura's eyes were entirely glazed over with dampness, staring off at something she couldn't quite look clearly at, "No matter for how much good it was for him, I still regret what I've done…no matter how many times he forgives me." She muttered silently to herself.

"Don't keep day dreaming…" Kyoshi began as he entered the room slowly, opening the oven and waving his hand at the steam that rose, "Otherwise we'll be left eating burnt leftovers for the rest of our lives." He joked.

Sakura smiled, she loved how he could change his mood so suddenly sometimes, "Sorry, I was busy thinking." She apologized, getting up and moving to the oven to get the food out, still not trusting him enough to cook for himself apparently.

"Now I'm scared." Kyoshi chuckled quietly, sitting behind her on the kitchen table.

"As long as Tala and Kai are still here…I'm sleeping in your bed, so unless you enjoy the sofa you better be quiet."

"Okay, I get it, I should be careful…" Kyoshi nodded in understanding, crossing his arms as he slumped slightly in sudden thought, "So…were you thinking about my dream? Is this about Naomi?" he asked her.

Sakura closed her eyes and smiled, just as she'd finished cutting up the pizza, "Don't be silly, of course not."

"Then what about?"

Sakura turned round, fitting her hands into her back pockets, stepping closer to him with a soft smile on her face, "I've just been thinking about some old things between us. Don't worry about it, alright?"

"Are you having second thoughts?" Kyoshi asked regrettably, whispering the words while he tried to keep his own breathing in order. He honestly thought that his question would get her mad, making her throw a fit as she usually would but she didn't, instead she smiled a little more and stepped closer, laying a soft kiss on his lips just before whispering some calming words to him and turning back to the food. He released a deep breath a moment later, "Should I be worried?" he asked her.

"Not at all." Sakura answered, picking up a plate of food and taking it into the next room. "Here is lunch, sorry but I couldn't be bothered to cook something better." She set the plate down onto the coffee table just as Kai and Tala had noticed her and moved over to the table for lunch. She walked back into the kitchen again, catching sight of Kyoshi's slumped form, "You're not worrying, right?" she asked him.

Kyoshi looked up from staring at the ground, giving her a faint and weak smile, "No…not anymore." He replied, shaking his head as strongly as he possibly could.

He continued to watch her with some intent as she walked up to him again, then basking in the warmth as she wrapped her arms gently around his neck and fingers ran through the hair on the back of his head, "After what happened last night…do you want me to stay home this afternoon or can I go out?" It had been a while since she valued his opinion regarding these sorts of things, usually she would have just left without him but she was different…she was gentler in a sense but her real personality was still able to shine through, she was still the same Sakura.

His own voice was a little hard to find at the time but timidly he was still able to speak, "Did you make plans?" Not wanting to give her an answer that would ruin her plans for the day.

"I was planning to go and check on that girl in the alley, see if anyone have found her or at least if she's managing living this way but I can save that for tonight and you can come with me then."

Kyoshi took both her hands off from around his neck, squeezing both her hands in his gently, "Then go, I'll be fine, I can catch up on some work and Tala and Kai will be here if I need anything." He smiled to help coax her into going and following her day as planned but she still continued to look at him with some uncertainty, "Just go." He continued.

"I'll just go and get some things." Sakura told him, letting go and leaving the room with a quick pace.

This left Kyoshi alone again for just a second. One is only alone because they choose to be alone. He jumped off the table, then picking up his food from the kitchen counter and walking out into the living room where he was no longer alone. He sat down heavily onto the sofa, sitting back with the plate perched onto his lap as he ate one slice of pizza, then noticing how Kai had just raised his eyes from his own almost finished food, "Sakura's going out?" he asked him.

"Yeah, I have errands to run." Sakura replied from behind him when she entered the room again, having heard him from outside the room. She stood in front of the mirror as she pushed back her silky black hair from the front, smirking when all eyes were on her again.

Something she didn't expect though was that Kai stood up and walked up beside her, an action that made her turn to him questioningly, "I'll walk you out, I need to get out of here for some fresh air anyway."

"That's what the fire escape is used for when we _don't_ have fires." Sakura patted him on the shoulders, then walking past him.

"I hardly call that fresh air." Kai called after her angrily.

Sakura shrugged just as she'd opened the front door, looking in Kai's direction as he'd just turned the corner and they locked eyes again, her grey ones with his crimson ones, "I think Kyoshi and Tala can take care of themselves while you get out of here for a while so if you're really that fed up here then go out for a while. I'm just going to visit someone, no gun fights involved if you're lucky, so you're welcome to join me if you'd like to."

Kai nodded, "Anything to get out of here for a while." He turned to Tala, the two exchanged a brief glance, then it broke in two and Kai followed Sakura out the door and to an unknown destination.

Kyoshi and Tala looked at each other at the exact same moment, both exchanging strange looks, "Should we be worried that the two most stoic people on the planet have just left the house together?" the redhead asked, a slight hint of humor in his voice.

Kyo found the way he put it funny and laughed quietly, "Maybe but it's good if they get along…let's just wait and see who comes back with the most bruises on them."

Tala tilted his head to the side with some thought, "Kai's pretty strong…" he began.

"Yeah but Sakura is very well-trained, I spent my whole afterlife teaching that girl everything I know and now she's better than me, she's tough to beat."

"I think between the two they'd be evenly matched, they're both excellent fighters I think." Tala added.

Kyoshi moved the plate onto the table and sat back again to stare upwards, "This is sad…" he began, "We're betting which of our best friends would win in a fight with each other." A smirk graced his lips at the actual thought of that, realizing how funny it was when you put it together like that. "Then again what else is there to do?" he asked rhetorically.

Tala, up until now, had been sitting on the ground at the coffee table but had just gotten up and sat down Kyoshi, "Ever since I got back from the Abbey I've spent all my days inside so I know what it's like not knowing how to kill the time."

"Life is short enough as it is when you're a mortal, time shouldn't be killed but for someone who is immortal I'm out to kill as much time as I possibly can."

"I'm sure there's something here that you could always do…I mean you have a job and such, a creative one at that _and_ you have talent so I'm sure you can use all that to fill in your days."

Kyoshi shook his head with disagreement to his statement, then glanced at him, "I just cant do that." He told him, receiving a confused stare from his friend, "I mean, don't get me wrong or anything, I love music and its my career of choice but can you imagine what it'd be like doing it as a hobby all day, and then having to continue it as your job at night?"

"I suppose you're right about that."

"With a friend like Kai though, I'm sure he tries to get you to do something during the day."

Tala shrugged a little, one thing coming to mind, "He's got his team to train so he tries to get me to go with him." He said.

"Then go with him."

Kyoshi watched that he'd shook his head quickly in a reply, "It's not that simple." He heard him say.

The vampire sat forward, being able to see Tala a little more once he'd turned away from him, "Why isn't it?" he asked curiously.

Tala stood up and walked over to the window, he hated being so close to someone and under such circumstances, "His team mates just _won't_ like me." He replied, a little disappointedly as he sat down on a stool by the window, glancing around the room from there.

Kyoshi's eyebrows furrowed in some confusion, his overall expression confused beyond belief, "How could they _not_ like you? You're a rather loveable person, I don't see how they could feel that way."

The redhead shifted uncomfortably on the stool, a hand moving to the back of his neck as he felt his muscles tense even more, feeling bad for starting the whole conversation in the first place but didn't dare change the subject, just answering as honestly as he could, "They've never exactly seen me in a good light."

Kyo sighed, trying to understand what Tala was saying and trying to come back with an actual answer, "I think…" he began hesitantly, "If you don't mind me saying, that if they can handle an attitude like Kai's, then they can handle you changing from the person you used to be, to the exceptionally great person you are now." Tala smiled very vaguely at his words, feeling strangely more uncomfortable now than he actually did before Kyoshi started talking. It appeared that the vampire had felt the boy's sudden shyness and smirked at it, "They're only image of you is of the person you used to be, which isn't you anymore, you have to show them who you are now. If you die tomorrow, which I won't let happen without a fight may I add, but if you die tomorrow do you really want them to just remember you as someone you couldn't help but be?" Tala shook his head slowly and made no eye contact with the lecturing-vampire. "I didn't think so." Kyo concluded.

"Can we move the subject off me now?" Tala groaned quietly.

As much fun as Kyoshi was having in watching the boy feel this kind of discomfort, he replied with, "Sure." To make things easier on Tala, after all he was the only company he had at the time, the last thing he wanted was to ruin that. "So you want to tear me up instead?" he asked him jokingly.

Tala smirked, raising his eyes in the direction of the life-wary vampire, "That's an option?" he asked.

"I give the opportunity I suppose."

"Alright…" Tala whispered to himself, staring at the ground for just a moment as the whole room went into silence just when he'd gotten something to talk about, "You said you'd explain things to me sometime…when?"

Understanding really became part of Kyoshi's job and the moment that question came up he understood and accepted it as it was, "Sometime when it's a little more important, when both you and Kai are together is best, it saves me from having to go through it twice."

"That's a plausible excuse." Tala shrugged, walking closer to his friend and settling down beside him like they had been before.

Kyoshi smiled softly, slowly closing his eyes, "I _hope_ it's plausible since it's the truth." He whispered.

"So Sakura knows this past of yours? You two really must be close for that."

The light-haired boy pulled a pillow onto him pressing it against his stomach as he curled onto his side, "It's the one part of this after-life I don't regret."

"You two _are_ really close then…" Tala watched that at his words Kyo's features softened a lot more and he relaxed against the back of the sofa, smiling softly and peacefully as his mind wandered to memories, memories that did him so much good Tala didn't have the heart to interrupt.

_**---Flashback---**_

_Kyoshi lay sound asleep on the sofa in the small and practically empty storeroom. Small white candles sat lit and still burning softly on some shelves to give the room a warm and homey feel to it. Sakura crouched down to the level of the sofa, placing a hand on Kyo's cheek and patting at it gently to wake him, "Hey, wake up." She called to him, whispering quietly so as not to give him another headache._

_The vampire opened tired eyes to look at her at the moment, placing a hand just above his eyes to shadow any light till he got used to it, "What the hell are you doing here? I thought I told you not to come over here anymore." _

_Sakura stood up, jerking her thumb over to the small table with a basket on the table, "I thought I'd get you something good to eat. You haven't exactly had a good couple of nights so I thought I'd make something to make you feel better." _

_Kyo sighed and stood up, looking down at her with sudden saddened eyes just before he looked at the ground and scratched the back of his head tiredly, "Now I feel bad." He whispered._

"_Don't. I know what my orders where and I disobeyed them, I was just somewhat concerned about you." _

_Kyoshi allowed a small appreciative smile grace his lips, picking through the basket of fruit, cake and drinks, "I'm fine, nothing to be concerned about." _

"_I've been thinking…" Sakura began, getting his attention with those few words, "I don't like your living situation and…I think you'd be a little better off living with me, in my room at the orphanage." _

"_After almost ten years of knowing you, raising you no less, I think that's the stupidest thing that's ever come out of your mouth." _

_Sakura shook her head and walked up beside him, crossing her arms as she spoke, "I really don't see how so. I've thought about ever aspect of this and I think it's an excellent idea." _

"_How will you explain the life-wary creature in your bedroom to those foster parents of yours?" _

"_They won't even know you're in there." Sakura replied, "You spend all your nights outside anyway, you just need a place to stay in the mornings. In the morning the children will be at school and my foster parents will be at work. Not to mention that they're not allowed in my bedroom, thanks to my lovely father so you'll be safe." _

_Slowly it all made sense to Kyoshi and he froze in his place, then looking up at her blankly, "I can't move in with you. It just won't work." _

_Sakura stepped up to him, placing one hand around his waist, massaging the small of his back with the side of her hand, "Stop being so negative about it." She smiled up at him, pulling at him to move closer, "Give it a few days, if you don't like it then you can always come back." _

"_Not only have you been making out with a vampire but now you want him to share your home and with you too? Do you just like being miserable?" _

_Sakura lifted his face with just her index finger, her eyes shining with honesty, "You being a vampire has nothing to do with it." She tightened her hold onto him, getting a very faint smile in return from the vampire in her arms. _

_**---End Flashback---**_

"Honestly…" Kyoshi looked up at the redhead, smiling bravely at what he was about to say, "I really don't know where I'd be right now if I hadn't met her when I did." Through blurring vision he could see that Tala was smiling as a response to his own words. He wiped at his eyes, hoping there was no dampness in them before looking clearly at Tala, "I'm thankful I know her." He muttered.

'_I guess everyone is like that with their best friends…I don't know where I'd be if it weren't for Kai and the rest of my team.' _Tala thought to himself finally.

"Tala." Kyoshi pulled back out of his own thoughts and onto reality, receiving a surprised look from the person in front of him, "I wouldn't give you wrong advice or anything so trust me when I say it might be a good idea if you got to know Kai's team mates."

Kyoshi was older, wiser and more mature than Tala, those where the three things that pushed him into believing that what Kyoshi said was right and he easily saw there wasn't that much harm that could come out of it, "I'll try." He assured him, giving off a supportive hit to his arm.

**A/N: Awful ending to a chapter, I know but I didn't know what better way to end it, it was either this or a cliffhanger and considering I'm going to be off the island for a few days I figured that a cliffhanger wouldn't be wise. Take care everyone and please please pretty please leave a review//Puppy dog eyes//**


	14. Disbelief

_**Chapter 14**_

_**Uma Thurman's character, 'The Bride' once said regarding a sociopath assassin, "What GoGo lacks in age, she makes up for in madness." Right about now, I couldn't feel anymore like GoGo. The power to kill is strong**__**, real madness. Why am I furious and mad you ask? You'll find out and to this point, no one has the courage to go against my anger. **_

_Sakura fumbled with her keys as she yawned heavily, trying desperately to enter the key into the lock. After a moment of failed attempts Kai helped her, taking the keys from her and opening the door himself, glancing at Saku as she shot him a short grateful look. She stepped inside and she dumped her bags of clothes by the door, exhaling happily once the pressure was off her hands and arms. She rubbed at her tired eyes as she stepped inside but once she opened them again they fell to a sight that frightened her suddenly. __She heard Kai walk up close beside her to see what she was looking at but she held an arm out in front of his chest as she stared on, "Wait here." She whispered, looking back at him as she snuck her gun out of her back pocket and readied in both her hands._

_By now Kai wasn't exactly sure what was going on, just that he knew something not so good had happened and that if he didn't stay out of the way he could endanger himself or Sakura so he sat tight, giving her an assuring nod and watching her leave the corridor. _

_Still on her mark, prepared for anything, Sakura walked over to the knocked-out vampire that lay face down on the living room floor by the window. Keeping her eye out for anything, constantly raising her eyes from her friend to look around, she turned him over, having him half on his side against the wall. She watched as he began coughing violently, his shaking cold hand instinctively going to his mouth as blood spluttered out onto his hand. Still he wasn't aware of what he was doing but his reaction was enough for the raven-haired girl to get up and walk down the hall. Two things on her mind. Tala, and the task at hand of shooting anything that stepped forward. It was harder than it looked. She had to make sure it wasn't a young Russian that she'd be shooting. Whatever she did, she couldn't let her mind wander. But that was the thing about her._

_Her mind never wandered in these cases. Ever. _

_Finding the house empty savour the people she already knew were there, she walked back to the hall where she'd left Kai, fitting her gun behind her again. "You need to remain calm." She told him quietly, placing one hand on his shoulder._

_Kai suddenly knew what she was implying and he shrugged out from under her gentle hand, walking past her where his eyes fell onto the scene, finally taking in the full extent of the tarnish the room had been put into. Worst of all, only one person was there. The Vampire. His best friend was missing. _

"_Just give me five minutes to wake Kyoshi, then we'll look for your friend." Sakura said, walking up beside him. __She looked into his eyes from just an angle and just at that she could have sworn she saw a heavy glint of fear in there but she just ignored it and walked over to her fiancé. She shook him lightly, not realizing the full extent of the injuries he'd endured. From behind her, she could hear Kai fall sitting onto the sofa, gaining her attention, "What is it?" she asked him sternly. _

"_I think Tala's been shot." Kai replied, looking at her with that same glint of fear in his eyes, though trying endlessly to cover it up and hold it back. Once he got a confused look from the girl he jerked his thumb over to the bullet casing on the ground, then just watching as Sakura crawled over to it, prodded it for heat before picking it up carelessly. _

_Sakura shook her head and tossed it onto the sofa, the one thing that hadn't been turned over, "I doubt it, the casing is practically frozen and it's a twenty-four, only I use those." _

"_So what is it doing crawling around here?" Kai asked bitterly, frustrated by the scare it gave him._

_The dark-haired girl turned back to her friend, tapping at him gently to wake him up, "There was a fight in here about two weeks ago…I shot Kyo by mistake, I burnt my finger on the bullet case when I tried to pick it up so I went to help Kyoshi and I forgot about it after a while." She exhaled watching as through many more winces Kyoshi began trying to sit up._

_Kai ignored the whispers that went on between the couple, catching sight of the phone that was on the ground not far away from him. One thought rushed through his mind in a second, Kai had left Tala his phone just in case something happened. It was about as good as time as now to use it. Dialling in a hurry with no consent from the owners of the home, he called his phone, waiting impatiently for his friend to pick up the phone. That wasn't happening though, the line was dead, no one was available to answer. It meant two things; either Tala was dead, or unconscious or too injured to pick up the phone when he called. He put it down on the sofa beside him, snapping rudely at the two, interrupting their quiet conversation in which Saku seemed to be attempting to console Kyo, "Tala isn't answering the phone." _

_Sakura looked at him with some disappointment evident in her features but then she strongly turned back to her vampire, "We need your help." She whispered softly. Kyoshi graced the tip of his tongue along one of his fangs, timidly nodding in agreement before trying hard to get up. _

_**---With Tala---**_

_Tala opened his eyes gently, rubbing at the back of his head painfully after something had hit him sharply and knocked him out cold. He was met with complete darkness though, he shook his head slightly, wincing yet again as a cut on the back of his head scraped against the wooden ground he lay on. He took a deep breath, slowly feeling like he was being suffocated just __under pressure, then his eyes steadily shutting as he fought the weaknesses and exhaustion. He sat up slowly, though hitting his head extremely hard against a close wooden surface. He groaned at the ever-growing throbbing that pounded in his head, his breathing growing harder and harder as felt himself in a tight space, a box of some kind. Spreading his arms to his sides the wall was less than a metre away on each side, much less above him and just close enough for his feet to touch the end of it. _

_He panicked. He could feel heat growing all over his body, tears growing even faster in his eyes, persistent stinging that suddenly began slipping down his now even paler cheeks. He was choking. He could feel himself choking on each breath that passed between his lips, making the breaths more panic-like, heavier, quicker, deeper, harder. Slamming and rattling sounds filled his ear drums through blood-rushing as he began slamming hard against the box. The coffin. His own death was so close he could taste it. He was trapped for good. They got what they wanted and now they were going to kill him for it. _

_**---With The Others---**_

_Sakura ran faster behind Kyoshi, Kai close beside her, 'Count on Kyoshi to be such a fast runner.' __She thought bitterly. The vampire stopped running suddenly and Sakura did too, stopping Kai by grabbing on the back of his shirt. "Why'd you stop?" she asked him._

_Kai breathed heavily, his hands on his knees as he dubbed over, looking around, "I don't see him." He breathed out._

"_This is where the trail ends…kids don't just disappear__ off the face of the Earth." Kyoshi told him, looking around them in the dark cemetery._

"_As much as I'd like them too." Sakura mumbled to herself, joining the others in searching for the missing teenager. "I don't get it…" she added, walking away from the two. She leant back against a tombstone, crossing her arms over her chest as she stared up into the dark sky, "Think." She coxed herself quietly. Distractions occurred when her phone rang in her pocket, sliding it out of her jeans in a hurry to see who was calling. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion and she walked over to Kai in a hurry, "Isn't this your number?" she asked him, turning the phone to him. _

"_Tala?" Kai asked her, locking eyes with her when he looked up from the number. _

_Sakura shook her head, being a little unsure, "Or someone who took the phone from him," she turned the phone back to her, "I guess we'll find out." She answered the phone, bringing it to her ear, "Yeah?" she asked for someone on the other line to speak._

"_Saku…" _

_Sakura stepped closer to the other two males upon hearing the voice, "Tala?" she asked, "Where are you?" Shrugging unknowingly when the two beside her gave her questioning looks. _

"_I don't know, I was knocked out and now I'm stuck in a box or something." _

"_A box? What are you talking about?" _

_Yet again Tala was close to another burst of tears, another panic attack growing with each short breath he was allowed to take, "All I know is I'm stuck in this like coffin, I don't know where just get me out." _

_By now Tala had been on speaker phone, Kai and Kyoshi being able to hear the redheads panic as much as Sakura could, "We need to know where you are to do that." Sakura told him, still no sound of emotion getting to her._

_Steadily the youngest was losing hope, suddenly shaking violently with the cold and ever-growing worry, "I don't know." He muttered into the phone__, almost choking on his shallow breaths. _

_Sakura growled quietly beneath her breath and shoved the phone into Kyoshi's hands, crossing her arms and walking off to the side. The vampire lifted the phone slightly, his eyes falling onto the girl for only a second before turning back to the phone in his hand, "What do you know that can help? Anything, sounds, smells, temperature…?"_

_Tala took a moment to answer, closing his eyes in an attempt to block things out and calm himself to concentrate on some kind of explanation. Unknowingly, he took a deep breath, his first since the panic attack only minutes ago, "Its cold here, damp sort of." _

"_I traced you as far as a cemetery, this place is full of cold and dampness so at least we're half way there, what else?" _

_Blood was rushing fast to Tala's head, giving him a headache and making being conscious a little more painful, "Shuffling?" he asked quietly at the thought of it._

"_What about it?" Kai asked hurriedly, by now feeling as much pressure as his friend._

"_I can hear shuffling, like feet dragging." _

_A heavy thud was heard, then Sakura began cursing heavily in a loud voice and multiple languages no less as she picked herself up from the dirty ground. She noticed the other two where giving her strange looks and she bowed just lightly while rubbing at her sore ankle, "Sorry." She apologized._

"_Don't be, just do that again." Kai shook his head and stepped closer to her, actually being serious in his words when he'd told her that._

_Though at this point Sakura still couldn't believe it, she stared at the ground beneath her at the small crater she had stepped in, "You don't think…?"she asked hesitantly, staring up at him with disbelief once again in her eyes. She saw how serious he actually was and she turned to Kyoshi, "Cover the phone a second." She ordered him. She watched for a second as her fiancé spoke quietly into the phone for Tala to give them a minute and he covered the phone. Once that was done she walked over to Kai, pushing him into the crater she had hit earlier, then the second Kai hit the damp soil they all heard Tala whimper and panic from the phone Kyoshi still held. She shook her head, disbelieving the situation, she turned to Kyo, her eyes saddening ever so slightly, "You're right…Kids don't just disappear off the face of the Earth, they disappear and go underneath it." _

_Kyoshi nodded and pulled the phone away from his chest, "Hey Tal…we __**really**__ need you to calm down right now." _

_This was the view of things for now. Tala was close to having another panic attack, he was buried who knows how deep under the ground and he didn't even know it yet. All he knew was that he was actually locked in a small space, and that as it was was enough to scare him. Kyoshi felt a great amount of sympathy for him and was trying his best to keep himself and everyone else calm to help get them through the situation. Kai was panicking just as much as his friend was once everything had begun to sink in. He could lose his friend and his mind was going blank at the thought of it. He was always able to handle tough situations but never was his best friend's life at stake like it was now. _

_Out of all of them Sakura was probably the most calm, of all the people there that where panicking someone had to be the rational calm one and she always took it upon herself to be that person, no matter what her real feelings where and what they were thinking. This heir of calmness she had about her always drove her to do bigger things, it helped her think. Whenever it was a calm situation she didn't do anything decent, she just did whatever came naturally to any person but when put under pressure of making up for everyone else she became the last bit of hope anyone had. She became driven to do what needed to be done. To hell whether or not she could handle it by herself, she was going to try her best at it with no arguments, protests or complaints. _

_Kyoshi silenced the phone again, walking closer to Kai and handing it to him, "I'm going to help Saku get him out from there, __**you**__ need to calm him down." He whispered quiet enough for Kai to hear him, though not enough for the other boy to hear over the phone. _

"_**You**__ calm him down and __**I'll**__ help Sakura." Kai insisted, pushing the phone back to Kyoshi._

"_He's your friend Kai, you know him best, just calm him down." __Kyoshi dumped the responsibility on him quickly, then ran off to help Sakura before Kai had any more time to argue with him. _

_Kai didn't want to lose Tala, obviously but he didn't know how to help him. Calming people down wasn't his specialty, there where times he could barely calm himself down just from nightmares, now he was being asked to calm down his friend who was trapped beneath the ground in a coffin, how do you tell someone who was going through that that it'd all be okay? He got the phone off loudspeaker and moved it to his ear, walking away from the others as he exhaled quietly, "How are you holding up over there?" he asked quietly, being unable to think of anything else to ask. _

_Tala made some quiet hesitating sounds, looking around the box through the darkness, releasing a shaky breath, "I think I'm alright for a while." He whispered back._

_Now it was Kai that felt like dieing, he could hear those little hitches in his friend's voice and breaths, so much so that he could feel the boy's fear surfacing again, "Relax…we'll have you out of there soon." Was he trying to convince Tala or himself with that?_

"_How will you tell the others?" The redhead asked, laughing half-heartedly._

"_Tell them what?" _

_He tried so hard to smile through his tears, he didn't care that he couldn't be seen he just wanted to smile another time, "That I died." He replied._

"_You're not going to die." _

_Sitting up was clearly impossible, turning on his side was worse unless Tala wanted to die faster so he just shifted his body a little to the side, "Really? Because from where I'm lying it really looks that way." _

_Kai slid down onto the ground against a tombstone, staring up into the sky as he spoke out, "Sakura and Kyoshi are going to get them out. You told me to have faith in them, we told each other to, so just listen to your own advice." _

"_Neither of us are always right Kai…more to the point I think we're almost always wrong." _

_The older surfaced Russian looked to his side, watching as Sakura walked over to him, "Don't say that." He whispered, taking in Saku's disappointed features when she knelt down beside him._

"_Its going to take us about ten minutes to get him out of there…Hana's men clearly knew what they were doing when they did this to him." _

_Kai covered the phone, eyes blazing with anger, "I don't think he can hold on ten more minutes!" he spat rudely._

"_We're trying Kai…Just try not to let him panic, tell him to take as little breaths as he can at a time and with luck he'll be out here safely with us in a few minutes." The sight of his face falling with more disappointment made her feel a slight cringe in her own heart, something that sprung her hand to rest on his shoulder, "You can take care of him perfectly, you're his best friend, I know there's something you can do to help. Just think." _

"_I can't think about anything like that at a time like this. If you're so calm than why don't you do it yourself?" _

"_Because it's not __**my**__ best friend that's locked in a coffin. At a time like this he'd want to hear your voice, not the one of a stranger." She was stern again, the sympathy for him was gone as quick as it came, "The skin of a coward doesn't suit you Kai, fight it and learn to help your friend when you need to. You're not alone anymore, with friends come great things but also responsibilities." She got off the ground, giving him a small glare, though her heart wasn't really into it, her mind was on something else, drawing her to turn back to help Kyoshi. _

"_Kai…" _

_The eldest snapped his attention back to his friend when he heard his name being called, "Yeah?" was the best he could even muster up._

"_Be honest…how long do you think I'll be down here?" _

"_If you keep worrying like this then you're going use up what air you have left." Kai avoided the subject, he'd had good practice at it, with his old team and his new one._

_Tala's hands shook slightly, thoughts actually racing through his mind so fast it hurt, the tears in the hot air making him feel worse as they stung heavily, "I'm trapped…in one of the worst places possible, how calm do you want me to be?" he asked._

"_For one you can stop thinking you're going to die, we won't let that happen." _

_Tala wasn't one to look on the dark side of things usually but its surprising what near death experiences can do to a person. Still the bad side persisted in his mind, he just couldn't handle the pressure, he was incapable of fighting off fear for much longer. Right about now he praised Boris' experiments for protecting him from such things as fear for so long, only now did he want that kind of immunity back but it was all gone, it didn't exist anymore. He was human, made to deal with fear when he didn't even know what fear was even as a child. "You know how many times we said that to other kids in the Abbey?" Not even realizing he had spoken._

"_This is different!" Kai shot back at him in a scolding tone. _

"_How is that?" _

_Kai grew a little more frustrated, as if calming his friend down wasn't hard enough without his negativity. "It just is. Stop worrying for now." _

"_You sound like you're worrying as much as I am." Then it'd ended just as the phone went dead. _

_Kai shook his head, he couldn't believe the bad luck they were all having. He ran over to the others, looking down into the hole they'd dug up, "His phone went dead." He told them._

_Kyoshi moved stepped down into the hole, brushing off soil from a surface, bringing out the figure of the wooden box beneath the ground. "Doesn't matter, we got this far." The three of them proceeded to brushing off the dirt and moving it out, "So we're sure this is him right?" he asked, looking at each of them. _

_Sakura gave a strange indifferent look, shrugging slightly, "Well if it isn't we're digging up some other poor soul." _

_Kai began to look furious, gritting his teeth to hold back fury, "This thing is nailed and screwed shut! They really don't want him getting out of here!" he exclaimed, finding the box unable to be opened. _

"_Anger isn't going to get you very far Kai." Sakura knelt down beside the wooden-coffin, sliding a pen knife out of her pocket, "Thank goodness this thing has a screw driver." She mumbled, fumbling with the set and beginning to unscrew nails. In the meantime out of the corner of her eye she could see Kyo walking over to Kai, listening unintentionally as he tried to calm him down. She turned her complete attention back to the screw driver just as it had pierced the centre of her palm when it skidded along one of the nails. She winced as it began bleeding out but she continued removing all the nails and screws, the nails being her biggest problem, till none where left and she stood up and kicked the lid off._

_In seconds of the lid sliding off Tala was sitting upright again, breathing heavily while tears just streamed at their fastest down his cheeks with relief and fright. Sakura back away from him, giving Kai room to sit by his side and calm him down and Kyoshi pulled off his red shirting to put over Tala's shaking shoulders, leaving him in a black and white t-shirt. Tala argued quietly for Kyoshi to take it back since it was cold out but Kyoshi insisted and just tried to help Kai in calming him down. _

_Taking in the sight for only a moment Sakura turned, hauled herself out and walked away, "Where are you going?" she heard Kai call out to her._

"_Go on home, I'll meet you there." Sakura ordered, walking on, a demonic look taking over her eyes, "I have a keeper to kill." She muttered viciously._

_**---Back at Home---**_

_Sakura walked into the kitchen where Tala and Kyoshi where. The vampire currently perched up onto the counter, watching while the redhead rested his head on his arms at the table. "Well…at this rate Kai isn't going to be having a good night." She informed the others, sitting at table in her usual place in the corner._

"_What's wrong with him?" Kyo asked her. _

"_Nerves got the best of his stomach." Saku replied. She turned her full attention back to Tala, suddenly remembering something, "Right…this belongs to you." She said hurriedly, tossing him his beyblade from her jacket pocket. "I got it off the keeper at the cemetery." She answered his confused look._

_Tala asked hoarsely, his voice still recovering from screaming and crying, "How'd you know it was the cemetery keeper anyway?" _

_A quiet groan was heard in Kyoshi's direction and Sakura glanced momentarily at him before turning back to Tala and replying, "Because that cemetery has had the same keeper for the past twenty-five years and Kyoshi accidentally killed that keeper a few days ago." _

"_Oh." Tala muttered regrettably, going back to quietly resting his head on his arms. _

_Sakura leant forward on the table, smiling softly, "How about I make you something warm to eat? It might do you some good and keep you from ending up like your friend." _

_Tala shook his head slightly, wincing at that, "Don't go through the trouble."_

"_Ah it's no trouble, I've got to make something for Kyoshi anyway." _

_Kyoshi slipped himself off the counter, standing in between the two, "Just make him whatever you're making me, if he isn't hungry then he doesn't have to eat it, then its more for me anyway." He tried to add a little humour to the whole situation, everyone just grew so tense when they'd gotten home._

_The raven-haired girl nodded slightly, "Sounds good. In the meantime, go do something about Kai, it can't be healthy." She told him, standing up._

_Suddenly Tala shifted at the sound of that, attempting to stand up, "I'll go do it." He said, being interrupted by two hands that pushed him down by the shoulders back into his seat._

"_You need to relax, Kyo can handle it just fine." Sakura insisted, jerking her head to the side as indication for Kyoshi to go before the redhead had more time to protest. She bent down to his level at his side from behind him, "You've been through a lot tonight, take it easy and let us do all the work for now." Her tone was warm, kind to an extent but it made Tala relax a little more than he had been before, smiling softly with some happiness as he rested his heavy head on his arms again._

_**---With Kyoshi and Kai---**_

_Kai breathed out heavily, his mouth gaping open slightly, wincing as he sat down at the foot of his bed, __"What do you want?" he asked._

"_Just to help." Kyoshi knelt down to be able to look up at Kai, handing him a drink which Kai took and sipped slowly. __Finishing it off he began wavering slightly and uncomfortably, his hand shaking so much Kyoshi took the glass from him in case he lost his grasp on it. He moved to sit beside him, taking in the sight of him as breathing got just a little harder and a little more uneven. Watching calmly he saw Kai get up then make a quick brake for the bathroom. He waited there for a moment, staring at the ceiling before getting up and walking inside._

_Kai sat dubbed over on the ground in front of the toilet, pressing down on his stomach as he felt like things where just getting worse. __"What did you give me?" he asked rapidly, glaring angrily at the boy who sat down on the side of the bath. _

_Kyoshi smirked vaguely,__ "__Derived from the dried __rhizome__ and __roots__ of the __Ipecacuanha__ plant, i.e Syrup of Ipecac." _

_Heat rose in Kai's cheeks, feeling even more uneasy by the passing moments, "Why would you do that?" he asked._

_The vampire sighed, walking over to him and rubbing his back soothingly, "You got worried out of your mind, nerves got to your stomach and its going to keep making you ill till you calm down or have nothing left to get rid of."__ Kai had shrugged his hand off, a stupid action but Kyoshi easily accepted it and sat down on the side of the bath again, "Clearly you weren't going to calm down until you got some sleep, to do that your only other option would be allowing yourself to feel sick." In a second Kai did in fact feel sick, the uncomfortable nausea rising in his stomach, "The Brightside to this is that I can talk without being interrupted by you and you have no other real choice than to just sit and listen."_

_As Kyoshi had said Kai really didn't have the opportunity to fight back or protest whatsoever in the state he was in. All he did was let his hands go to his shoulders which had begun shaking from the cold that his body went under, the heat burning other parts of his body, his face particularly. _

"_Kai…I'm really sorry I did this to you but I you need to get better for your friend's sake and you need to listen instead of argue for a while." Sympathy filled his voice naturally, looking on at Kai with a degree of care and all his honesty shone through, "This is the thing Kai…you trusted us with your friend, you dealt with comforting him while you left us with the responsibility to dig him up. You trusted us with your friend, why not with yourself?" Naturally Kai couldn't answer, he wouldn't have answered even if he could anyway. "I know you trust us now, I know that much about you but what I don't understand is why you just refuse to let yourself get help. You had a huge scare today, you almost lost your best friend but you'd barely shed a tear even if you were alone. You can't expect us to just sit here and pretend we don't see you hurting, for Tala's sake I can't do that." _

_Kyoshi got up and walked over with him, placing a hand on his shoulder and staring down at his back, "For all our sakes just calm down around us, if you don't care about us then do it for Tala, I know you care about him enough to __**at least**__ try." He gave the broad shaking shoulder a little harder before sliding it off of him completely, "The ipecac lasts up until your stomach is empty, so that means it shouldn't last for much longer. I'll bring you something to eat soon." He left before he found anything else he could possibly come up with to tell Kai about. He stepped into the kitchen again, watching Tala sitting at table sipping at a mug of hot soup that Sakura had just made. Lucky for them all that soup didn't take all that long to make, they were starving after the long day. "Food, thank goodness." Kyoshi mumbled appreciatively, picking up the mug in a hurry and rushing to the table. _

"_Calm down." Sakura told him with a slight chuckle, spinning round to look at him. She walked closer to them, looking over them as they ate just before she placed a gentle hand on Tala's back, "How are you feeling?" _

_Tala turned his head to the side and looked up at her, smiling softly with his weakness, "A little better." He replied hoarsely, sounding grateful for her gentle tone._

_He was still frozen though, the girl felt it on him and smiled back with actual kindness sparkling in her usually dull and cold eyes, "I'll go put more blankets in your room, that way you won't freeze in the night." She joked quietly. _

_Kyoshi looked up from his food hurriedly, "Ah could you take Kai some water and something to eat?" he asked, almost forgetting about the boy. He watched Sakura nod slowly in reply, turning away to get the drink and food before suddenly turning back and placing her hands on her hips. _

"_What did you do?" she asked him sternly._

_The vampire suspiciously turned back to his food, "Nothing." He replied casually, shrugging his shoulders for emphasis. _

_Sakura's face contorted to one of disgust, raising her eyes momentarily, "You didn't." she hoped aloud.She didn't get an answer out of him, just uncomfortable silence and a confused look from him, "That poor boy." She crossed her arms across her chest, "Its one thing to do that to me but to him?" she shook her head and turned round to get the glass of water and food, "That poor boy." She whispered._

"_He was being stubborn, I didn't have any other choice." _

"_It's still unfair…"_

_Kyoshi smirked, "You're just sour because you hate it when I do it to you."_

"_Damn right I hate it!" Sakura said bitterly, glaring at him. She put everything she needed on a tray, passing off a pissed off glare at him before she left the room and hurried down the hall. She entered her old bedroom, old being the reason she didn't really mind giving it up to the two males. She set the tray down onto the bedside table, ignoring Kai at first as he did to her from the bottom of the bed. She remained standing there in front of the nightstand, resting forward against it with her hands, she sighed quietly and picked up the glass of water and moving beside him, handed it to him. He passed off to her a glare of his own but she just shook her head with a smile on her face, "Don't worry, Kyoshi does the same thing to me, it's actually water this time." She informed him._

_Seeming to have believed her claim Kai closed his eyes momentarily and took the glass and drinking slowly to rehydrate himself, honestly thankful for the gentle moisture that ran down his sore and dry throat and cracking lips. Earlier when Kyoshi had given him the drink he'd past off the strange taste to the irritation in his mouth and nausea he felt but now the water tasted just the way it was supposed to so his mind was at ease in that department. "I wasn't expecting something like that from him." He muttered rudely._

"_Yeah well the guy is sweet and gentle but can be a real pain in the ass when he wants to be." _

"_Noted." Kai got up, walking past her and setting the glass down on the nightstand by the tray, sitting back down on the bed but away from where she'd been. _

_The girl rolled her eyes secretly, it was one thing to be pissed off about what Kyoshi did but the guy didn't have to ignore her too. Keeping that in mind she walked into her old bathroom, rummaging through some objects in the medicine cupboard before walking back into the bedroom and up to Kai while she poured out a subtle transparent liquid onto some wool. She sat down on the bed, passing the wool to him as she clutched the bottly tightly in her hand, "Inhale that, you'll feel better." _

_Kai gave her another suspicious and questioning look, he couldn't help it, now he wasn't sure whether or not to trust her with whatever she gave him. Though he didn't need to really do much with the wool, the scent on it was strong enough as it was and he smelt it just fine from where his hand was on his lap. Though she took his hand anyway and raised it to bring it to his face before she dropped her hand away from his. The scent was painfully strong, toxic to a certain extent but for some reason it seemed comforting on his sensitive stomach, "What is it?" he asked her._

_Sakura smiled, if he asked her something it meant he wasn't going to be quick to shrug her off again, "__Isopropyl alcohol__, It's used in hospitals to abate nausea until either medication or sleep takes affect. Since you're not under any medication sleep is your only savior since Isopropyl alcohol is about twice as toxic as ethanol which means you can't take anymore of it." She blinked a second after that, tilting her head to the side with thought, "Well…unless you want to incinerate your lungs and let it go to your brain." She smiled softly at that in his direction, and an extremely vague smile appeared on his own face just as he'd closed his eyes. _

_He was getting frustrated, a little humiliated. She could tell, even when he turned his face away from her, she could clearly see frustration and humiliation under that stone mask of his. His eyes where burning red, she'd moved forward and turned to him enough to be able to see that much but she couldn't understand why he was having that kind of reaction. "Kai…" she began quietly. She didn't get a word from him, he didn't even look back at her, just shifting his head to look at the ground instead. "Is there something you want to talk about? To me? Or Kyoshi maybe?" she tried, she didn't know what to say to him. In so many ways the two of them where so alike, but they were still so different in beliefs. She didn't know what to say and he didn't say anything back which didn't help her at all._

_Suddenly she got a better idea __as to how Kyo felt when she was like this…if she was ever like this. When he asked her questions, rarely did she ever go completely silent when she was asked questions by the vampire, she'd either yell at him or answer him calmly, or something, anything. As long as she replied with something it was always the way she did it. Kai was different so now she had to think like him as best she could. Thinking about it would only last a moment for her, she could barely sort out the way she herself felt, it was sometimes difficult thinking about another persons feeling's for long periods of time. She nodded as she didn't get a reply from him, "I'll leave you alone to think. Eat while its still hot, then try to get some sleep." She couldn't be bothered to wait for him to answer, a little part of her knew that he wouldn't give her any kind of answer anyway. __"We've had a long day, both of you go get some sleep." Sakura said in a very mother-like tone of voice to the two males in the living room. _

_Tala was curled up on one end of the sofa, cuddling up warmly against pillows and covered in warm blankets. Kyoshi was sitting on the armchair closes to his side of the sofa, sitting forward in the seat to be able to talk and keep an eye on Tala. "Too shaken up." Tala's excuse was._

"_Even better reason to try to get some sleep." Sakura insisted, walking past them and into the kitchen. _

_Kyoshi sighed and raised his eyes to look in the direction she'd left, "You go sleep Saku, I'll make sure he gets some sleep soon." He called to her. _

_Sakura arrived the doorway, as the two males had expected, a lit cigarette in her hand, "No way," she shook her head, "You have to sleep, you've had enough. I'll stay with Tala." _

_The blonde vampire turned to look at Tala who looked up at him surprisingly once he noticed the stare, "You're okay with that?" he asked him quietly. He got a confident and sure nod from the boy so he stood up, bending down enough to speak to Tala closely, "If you remember anything and want to talk, just come and wake me." He smiled softly, then stood up straight and left the room as he gave a 'Take care of him' look towards Sakura. _

_Saku waited until she was sure that he was gone and then moved to take the same place he had sat earlier, "You're holding up okay?" she asked him._

_The redhead opened his eyes and lifted his head off the pillow to look at her, smiling at the hint of concern she had hanging off her, "I'm fine." He yawned slightly a second later, resting his head on the pillow, "Tired." He added, closing his eyes in an attempt to stop that tiredness. _

_Sakura got off the armchair with the sound of that, walking over to the window and leaning against the wall to look outside to pass the time she waited till he fell asleep. _

About this point was when she allowed her anger from the day to surface.

The memories of the whole day from other peoples' point of views is what brought her to be so angry. To feel absolute madness going on inside her to kill any living being that crossed her path at the time. She had to admit, killing the keeper wasn't as much fun as she thought it would be. She was so blinded by her rage at the time that she didn't even give herself the time to enjoy the kill. Though, she reminded herself happily that he wouldn't ever hurt anyone ever again. Especially Tala. Now everyone was suffering because of the day's actions. Tala was a train wreck, but in all honesty, taking it better than Saku had originally expected. Kai was feeling guilty and frustrated, frightened that he almost lost his best friend and he couldn't do all that much to help. Kyoshi just wanted to sit down and help Tala but she disallowed him to, the girl knew he'd been through enough in the past few days to need as much sleep as he could possibly get, hence, why she kicked him off to his room to sleep and opted to fight off her burning rage and exhaustion to keep an eye on the redhead.

Said redhead had finally fallen asleep by the time she'd finished thinking about the whole troublesome day they'd all just had. He looked peaceful but her anger still burnt so strong that she couldn't even pass off a sweet smile that would have usually grown on anyone's lips. Still red was all she could see, even after endless minutes of staring in his direction, she shook her head, she couldn't believe her rage but she still couldn't believe the whole day. It was still sinking in. When she tried to be as strong as she was, at the end of the day it took a while longer for it to all sink in. "No body deserves to die like that." Her eyes fell to the icy beyblade on the table just in front of Tala, "No matter what they've done." She added beneath her breath.

**A/N: So this chapter had a whole new approach as you can see. I started it out with a thought and sort of narration from Sakura, then the day was carried out in regular sequence like any other chapter except in italics as she explored the day through the point of view of other people in a way. At the end is the point where was the real present, when she was thinking back on the day. Possibly rather confusing now that I look at it and explain it but it seemed to made sense at the time of writing it. I just wanted to try something new for a change. **

**Strangely enough, Uma Thurman's character in Kill Bill was buried alive in the second movie but that's not where the idea came from. The original idea came from the fact that the Yakuza(Japanese mafia) are known for burying people alive, thus its become popular in Japan. That, and there's a song called 'Taion' which means Body Temperature, by The GazettE that is a tribute to a girl who was raped and buried alive. So I suppose the song is a bit of inspiration for the chapter.**

**Please leave a review and tell me what you think! (I really don't know why I ask anymore)**

**Take care everyone!**


	15. Health, yours and mine

_**Chapter 15**_

The tall vampire walked out of his bedroom in time to meet Kai in the hallway, passing off a small smile to the young beyblader, "Morning." He greeted in a whisper. Kai replied to him quietly in the same manner but not loud enough for Kyoshi to tell if Kai was still frustrated with him for what had happened the night before, "Still mad?" he asked curiously.

Kai grumbled quietly beneath his breath for just a second at being reminded of the night's incidents, then sighing, "No," he answered, then adding, "You helped Tala after all, how mad could I be?"

The vampire raised an eyebrow at him, asking, "Honestly?" He got a punch onto his shoulder, reacting by laughing, stopping in the living room and pulling Kai back to talk to him, "If it's any consolation…" he began, a smile playing at his lips, "I could have given you a stronger dosage but I didn't think you were stubborn enough to need it."

The Russian beyblader smirked and rolled his eyes, "Thanks." He said sarcastically, walking off into the kitchen, followed by Kyoshi. The two entered as far as the doorway of the kitchen, looking down at Tala who was eating at a table full of food.

The innocent redhead looked up at them, "Hey I just came in here and she was cooking like crazy." He defended himself.

"Sakura, are you alright?" Kai asked her cautiously, confusedly looking in her direction.

The girl turned round, smiling softly, "Yeah, fine. I just thought everyone would be hungry after last night." She explained, laughing quietly, a strange action for Sakura, especially _this_ early in the morning.

"Well yeah we're hungry but don't you think this is overkill?" Kyoshi joined the other two males at the table, his eyes gracing over everything on the table, being unable to decide where to start from.

"Speaking of overkill I've got a few people to murder this afternoon." Sakura told them, still sounding shockingly casual about it.

Kyoshi looked up at her a little worriedly, "After last night are you actually up for that?" he asked.

"After last night I'm definitely up for it." Sakura mumbled angrily, turning and walking out of the room to leave everyone alone to eat. She heard Kyoshi hurry up and follow her to the vampire's bedroom, turning and finding him standing there, "Yes?"

"You aren't handling your anger very well."

"What better time to go on a killing spree?"

"When you're in the right state of mind preferably!" Kyoshi exclaimed, sighing he visibly relaxed momentarily, "Though that's not my concern. I saw how you got back here yesterday; you could barely walk straight for the first few minutes."

"You know as well as I do that I know how to take care of myself in these situations, you're just using it as an excuse to protect me for some other underlying reason."

The vampire sighed, rubbing at his temples as he paced in front of her, "I'm just worried about you and your health, that's all it is."

Sakura stepped closer to him, crossing her arms and looking up at him caringly, "I appreciate your concern but as always it's unnecessary."

"I can't believe you're still saying that!" Kyoshi shouted out with frustration. He walked over to the bed, sitting down and resting his head in both his hands, "I don't want to start my day with yelling, or a migraine but I _am_ worried about you, I want you to slow down or at least make a better attempt at being less reckless."

"Let me get through what I've got planned for today, then if things don't work out as well as intended then I'll slow down."

Kyoshi exhaled silently, looking up at her with still some uneasiness in his dark blue eyes, "Be careful for me, alright?" he confirmed, pleading entering his eyes.

The lone girl pulled back her raven-coloured hair, nodding slowly, "For the last few years I've always been careful…I'll just make it a point to be a little more careful today." She told him. She sat down abruptly beside him, her hands in her lap just before she gave his arm a poke, "What are you thinking about?" she asked him, crossing her arms.

Kyoshi shrugged a little, continuing his long stare at the ground in front of him, "Don't you think we should tell Kai and Tala everything by now? They've been here what…two weeks? It's about time we tell them everything."

"Do we have to?" Sakura sighed. She got another shrug as a reply so she exhaled again with some realization, "Fine if it means that much to you then we'll tell them." At that arms swung around her shoulder, hugging at her tightly with a whisper of a happy thanks in her ear, "Alright alright, don't get clingy." She laughed quietly, tugging at his arms, "But we're not telling them today, we'll wait till tomorrow at least. I think they've had enough serious heart palpitations for twenty-four hours."

Kyoshi smiled at her truthfulness, moving closer and setting a quick kiss on her mouth, "Thanks." He whispered softly.

The young girl smiled and stood up, "Stop being thankful towards me. We should be past the stage of saying our thanks every few minutes." She walked over to the doorway in her attempt to exit but paused and looked back, "Go get something to eat." She ordered before she left.

The vampire sulked a little, looking up at where his fiancé left, shaking his head and standing up, "If only you knew why I worry." He mumbled, making his way out of the bedroom and back to the kitchen to join the others. He walked back into the kitchen just as Tala pushed his plate away from himself, turning to look at him at the same time.

Tala laughed up at him, "I see why you said you don't like eating out, why eat out when Sakura cooks like this?" he asked rhetorically. He glanced at Kai for a second then, smirking up at Kyoshi again, "Me, I have to eat out, it's _healthier_ for me to eat out, because Kai can't cook at all."

Kai rolled his eyes at the statement, then again at the two glances he got from the other males, "I don't like cooking." He mumbled angrily.

"Maybe you're just afraid of poisoning Tala with your cooking." Kyo thought aloud, sitting down to begin his breakfast.

The older Russian sighed, just a little frustrated which sprouted a glare from across the table to the innocent vampire, "Its not that I _can't_ cook, it's just that I choose _not_ to cook."

"Poor Tala." Kyoshi said, sympathetically.

He vampire's new friend smiled, "It doesn't matter…I can enjoy the food here at least."

Still Kyoshi didn't look all to convinced, finishing a glass of cold water before he spoke, "After we're done with all this I should tell Sakura so we keep in touch, maybe she could make you both some decent cooked meals once in a while."

"Still meeting would be great..." Tala mumbled.

Kyo nodded, smiling vaguely, "We'll still meet. I'm not stupid enough to lose good friends."

"At least." Tala murmured to himself.

**---Hours Later---**

The three males sat around in the living room with nothing in particular to do; Kyoshi sitting upside down on the sofa, holding a notepad above his head with a pen in hand, obviously working as always. Kai just sat in the quiet room reading the newspapers that had been left on the coffee table, it being his only way to pass the time for the moment. Tala in the meantime sat curled up on his side in an armchair, Kyo's player hooked to his ears while he relaxed listening to the various music that played on it. Silence had all dawned onto the room for no particular reason but the fact that Kyoshi had his own work to do, Tala was too innocent to bother interrupting anything and Kai was just being quiet and stoic as always. Sakura, on the other hand, had disappeared into her old bedroom long ago and hadn't come out, even after Kyoshi had checked on her, having found her feeling ill in the bathroom.

Tala, having been facing the direction of the hallway was able to catch sight of the girl walking down the hall, the other two catching on as they'd heard her heavy footsteps. She stopped in the doorway, turning to the large mirror in the living room, fixing up the collar of her black jacket. "So how do I look?" she asked them.

It was really hard to tell for the others though, in all honesty they couldn't tell if she was going out for a business meeting with someone very important or if she planned on killing someone. She was currently wearing a short black skirt, the business kind, with a white shirt underneath a black jacket and her knee high boots looking like she could decapitate someone with the heal.

"Wonderful as always but come to think of it you never did quite tell me what your afternoon plans where." Kyoshi informed Sakura, arching his head all the way back so he could see her while remaining upside down.

"Inagawa-kaï family lost their general a while ago; they're holding a vote for the new general today." Sakura explained, still admiring herself in the mirror.

Kai raised an eyebrow at her, a part of him not believing what she was saying, "Inagawa-kaï? You're voting for the new Yakuza family general?" came his rather surprised question.

Saku laughed softly at that and turned them all, then walking slowly to the door, "Of course not," she answered, opening the door, "I'm running for general." She added.

While Tala just sat there quietly, he wasn't sure whether he should be worried or trust her to do what she intended but either way he remained quiet, leaving Kai to be the only person voicing such opinions, "You trust her to do this?" Kai asked sharply, glaring at the vampire.

Said vampire didn't seem phased at all by the fact that his fiancé was running for Yakuza general or by Kai's ever growing death glares, "She's a big girl, she knows what she's doing." As sure as he sounded, his heart was beating just a little bit harder in his chest with uncertainty and some worry but his mind overran his heart at times and reassured him that she was strong enough to handle things as she was.

Kai gave up, he couldn't argue with Kyoshi, or Sakura and Tala was making no attempt at vouching for him so he just shrugged, "Fine, good luck then." He called to her.

"Thanks." Were Sakura's last words before she left the house, the front door banging hard behind her.

The eldest Russian groaned heavily and went back to reading the paper, the groan being heard more than clearly by the vampire who lifted his head which darted in the boy's direction, "What?" he asked the teen.

Kai slammed the newspaper back down, suddenly frustrated, "I can't believe you let her do that. That's the third largest Yakuza family she's running for, if they find her…"

Kyoshi sighed in the middle of Kai's rant, resting his head back to the way it was earlier, "She'll know exactly what she has to do and she'll be fine." He cut him off through gritted teeth. He spent so much time trying to convince himself that things would be alright; now with a few sentences Kai was undoing all his hard work.

"Could you both just stop?" Tala cut in, now angry himself as it had seemed the other two had forgotten he was sitting right there. Now everyone's attention was on him and all he could do was continued where he'd left off, "I'm sure a part of Kyo is just as worried about Sakura as you are so you aren't helping, Kai." Clearly he'd startled Kai at the thought that he was once again siding with Kyoshi and not his best friend so he continued, "Even I'm worried about her but she knows what she's doing. She's smart; she's not going to go there unless she was sure that she could get herself out of anything."

Kyo exhaled heavily at the sudden silence that fell upon the room again, turning over and sitting up, crossing his legs underneath him, "Tala, I appreciate your defence for us and Kai, I understand where your concern is coming from." He hated having conversations like this; they pained him so much to even have such seriousness where it wasn't necessary. "Tala, understand that Kai almost lost you yesterday, whether he chooses to admit it to you and me or not, he was scared out of his mind because he almost lost you, his best friend. He doesn't want to have to deal with death, he doesn't care who's death but he doesn't want to deal with it at all that's why he's this uptight about Saku." Once he saw Tala relax visibly in his seat he knew he'd gotten his point across so he turned his attention to Kai, "You on the other hand, need to stop worrying so much and trust me when I tell you that Sakura is trained well enough to be able to handle her job. I worried about her for years but every single time she came back here alive, so a part of me stopped worrying. Naturally I still worry about her but I trust her at the same time."

Underneath Kai's cold exterior he couldn't help feeling a certain feeling of discomfort, sitting there with Kyoshi being able to tell almost everything that was bothering him in such a precise manner, was startling and uncomfortable for him. In front of his best friend too.

A vampire's senses are said to be some of the sharpest of all, and Kyoshi could clearly vouch for this once he picked up on some of the teen's discomfort. He turned to Tala momentarily, locking his much calmer eyes with Tala's concerned blue ones, "Could you give us a minute?" he asked, gaining a small respective nod from the boy. Getting his answer he stood up, tapping Kai's arm and walking to the bedroom, followed shortly by a usual stoic character.

"You didn't need to pull me out of there." Kai spat rudely at the vampire.

Kyoshi put both hands down onto Kai's shoulders, pushing him to sit down on the bed, then kneeling down in front of him, "Kai…"

The Russian smirked, annoyance growing, "Great, now you're talking to me like I have some kind of problem." He murmured.

"If you need to talk about what happened last night…"

"I don't need to talk!" Kai blurted out hurriedly, quietly all the same to keep Tala in the other room from hearing. He waited for a second for Kyo to compose himself before asking a solid question, "Why do you and Sakura assume I need to talk about it?"

"Kai, be sensible, Sakura and I are in the business of death but don't think for a moment that we don't feel anything." The blonde brushed away hair from Kai's face so he'd be able to look at him, sending shivers down Kai's spine, "You almost lost your best friend…you mean to say you don't want to try and deal with that?" he only got a shake of the boy's head as a reply, an avoidance of each other's gazes. "Then if you can't talk to me, what about Sakura?" he asked, slowly giving up on the boy.

"I already told you, I don't need to talk. Can't this conversation just end here?"

"No. Nothing good comes out of holding these kind of things back Kai."

Slowly but steadily Kai was at a loss for words with each time he spoke to Kyoshi about something serious. He wanted to say something, something that would at least buy him some time till he knew he could say something, or better yet nothing at all, "I just need to think for a while."

Kyoshi softened up a bit at the sound of that and got up, sitting beside him, "That's fair but…" he paused, staring through the white curtain into the other room, "don't be too hard on yourself. Trust me enough to get through to you that none of this is your fault."

Kai smirked lightly, "I thought the point of letting me think alone was so that I could be the one to evaluate things like that." He said softly, a slight hint of humour in his voice.

This made Kyoshi chuckle quietly and nod, "It is but if you've got someone who can save you half the headache then that's always good, isn't it?"

"But why are you taking this thing with Sakura so lightly?" Kai asked him, clearly still being unable to understand this kind of relationship the two older people had with each other.

Again they were on the subject…one Kyoshi really didn't feel like discussing. Although, Kyoshi would hate to be a hypocrite; having Kai talk to him about his problems, but he himself refusing to discuss a 'simple' matter. "I'll admit, I'm a little worried about her but she can handle this. She grew up doing these kinds of jobs; I don't see why this one time should be any different to all the others."

"You act like it's different…" Kai said, suddenly getting a little confused look from the other, "Different from the other times." He rephrased.

The vampire laughed half-heartedly, staring down at the ground as though it where the most interesting thing in the room, "I've become a little paranoid lately…particularly worried about her health." Really, that was only half of what was bothering him, though he thought he'd give Sakura the respect she deserved by telling her before he told anyone else, she'd kill him if it where done any other way.

"She's reckless, she doesn't care about the way she fights and true, she's so skinny it _must_ be unhealthy but by overall appearance and by the way she handles things I wouldn't say she's ill enough for you to worry about it."

Kyoshi quietly laughed it off; obviously not about to give the other the real reason he was this worried, "Yeah, like I said I've become paranoid." He defended himself.

"I never would have guessed." Kai smirked sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

Kyo punched Kai lightly, "Well it's just been Saku and I for years, one of us had to be the sensitive caring one."

"I didn't know the sensitive caring one secretly got to feed ipecac to the cold untouchable one."

"I know…sorry about that."

Kai laughed just slightly and turned away from him, "Yeah, you're forgiven this time but next time you try to help, let me be fully aware of it." He said in a slightly more ordering tone.

Kyoshi gave him a firm pat on the shoulder, laughing at the tone in which the order was said, "Sure." The two got up with that agreement, walking back into the other room ready to tell Tala that the two had sorted out their argument but upon arriving there they'd found Tala'd pulled a blanket over himself and fallen asleep, still curled up onto his side in the chair. Kai proceeded towards him, ready to wake him or at least check to see if he was alright but Kyo had caught his hand just in time, "He's exhausted, let's leave him alone." He gave a jerk of his head in the direction of the kitchen as a sign to Kai to just leave Tala in peace and follow him.

Kai sat down in the kitchen, a part of him still a little uncertain about a lot of things that went on around him. "Coffee?" he heard Kyoshi asking from behind him.

The Russian sighed, a little flustered and undecided, "Yeah, sure." He accepted finally. Moments later a mug sat in front of him on the table and he glanced up at Kyoshi who'd gone to sit down, "Thanks." He whispered tiredly. He heard Kyoshi groan then watched him stand up again, hearing him mumble something about needing to get his work, which indeed he did; coming back into the room with the notepad and pen. Kai took a sip of coffee, staring at Kyoshi's work at an angle as the vampire stared at the half blank page while sipping his own drink, "You work too hard." Kai mumbled.

Kyo made a growling sound at the back of his throat, smirking, "Right, I'll bet _you_ don't." Came his sarcastic retort.

"So I do but I stop after a while, sometimes when I don't have people looming over me, which in case you haven't noticed, Sakura is no longer doing."

The vampires laugh was quiet, sweet and honest at the same time, "I don't write like this because she makes me do it, or because it's my job, I do it because I just enjoy it."

This surprised Kai. It was as though a lot of things the creature said surprised him these days, he was a surprising and different character. "You enjoy pouring out your emotions on pieces of paper?"

"It's not like that...its productive...helpful for a lot of people."

"Like?"

Kyoshi smirked at the boy's stubbornness, "Me; it keeps my emotions and moods as orderly as I can keep them. Sakura; she has something to sing and she's got someone to brush up her own writing. The other band members; they've got their jobs which keeps them out of trouble. Then there are the fan's, they appreciate the feeling in our music so who am I to deny them that?"

Kai shrugged, not entirely sure about the way to answer, this was probably the most he'd actually spoken to someone at once, "Well if you enjoy what you do..." he trailed off.

"I do..." He whispered, suddenly locking eyes with the teen again, "I love anything that attempts making me feel better. Being locked up in here almost all my life...tends to bring a person down so I try to make the best of things."

Understanding a person's situation is just overall hard but when the person you're trying to understand isn't even human, it's a hundred times harder to try to understand. When the person is just complicated in general, how do you expect an attempt at trying to understand something that the person himself can understand?

"I don't get any of this but I suppose in any situation positivity is best."

By now Kyoshi had come to the point of sketching lines against the edge of his page, keeping his eyes fixed on the page while he continued to talk to Kai, particularly about how good thinking positively was helpful for everyone in many occasions. Naturally Kai disagreed to most of the things that he said but at least it meant that the two hadn't spent the afternoon in miserable silence.

**---3am---**

The front door opened quietly, shutting behind the shadowed form of the staggering girl. She sighed, feeling irritated by the heat that coursed through her whole body. She staggered backwards at the sight of Kai standing up from the sofa, "Kai..." she breathed out with relief, Kai having shocked her, "What the hell are you doing up at this time? It's late, or have you not noticed?" she bit out a little rudely but was too exhausted to actually be too angry with him.

Obviously ignoring the girl's rudeness that was as bitter as his usually was, Kai was drawn to look at her thighs. Not because he was deciding it was time for dirty thoughts but because bright red blood was more than just noticeable on milky white skin.

The girl had noted his staring and where his eyes where aimed at and looked down, seeing the blood dripping from under her skirt, "Oh thank goodness, I thought you had a dirty mind." She breathed out quietly.

With some uncertainty Kai opened his mouth to speak but only managed after a moment, "Are you alright?" was the best he could bring himself to ask.

"Yeah...fine." Sakura smiled weakly, "It's not even my blood anyway..."

The Russian was in the middle of being confused, shocked and worried all at once, his eyes widening a bit, "You sure?" he asked with some disbelief.

Sakura tried to laugh it off, stumbling lightly but gripping at the dressing table in time, "Yeah, if it were mine, I'd feel it, wouldn't I?" she stood up straight and stopped in the entrance to the hallway, "I need to have a shower, mind if I use your bathroom?"

"Hey, it's your place, you don't need my permission." Kai walked up behind her; to be honest he didn't quite trust her standing up by herself.

Saku nodded, "I guess it is. Go get some sleep, Kai." She ordered him quietly, entering the bedroom she shared with Kyoshi to get some of her clothes. By the time she'd picked up her things, walked into her old bedroom, Kai was lying in bed, not too far from a sleeping Tala. She ignored the two and went into her bathroom, getting rid of her blood soaked clothes and entering the shower in a hurry. As much as she enjoyed the warm water on her body, gently cleaning away every trace of blood from her skin, she got out quickly as she'd begun to feel cold. She got dressed quickly, picked up all the blooded clothes from the ground, cleaned the bathroom of her mess and left quietly, passing through the bedroom in silence so as to not wake the two boys.

Dumping her clothes in the corner of Kyoshi's bedroom she snuck over to him quietly, resting her hands on her knees as she smiled down at his sleeping form, "Good night." She whispered, lifting the blankets higher up his body. She exhaled with nostalgia, turning and walking to the kitchen. On the table Kyoshi's batch of papers sat, a recorder on top of it and a note beside both, which read, _'Finished the lyrics for the new song, take a look, if there's something you don't like than get back to me about them and I'll sort it out. Thanks...Kyoshi.' _she smiled at that, she still couldn't quite understand why he was so polite when leaving her messages.

Still, she fell down exhaustedly into her chair and checked over the lyrics on the page he'd left her, just when her first interruption began when Kai stepped into the doorway. _'I always wondered when she did her work.' _He thought to himself. There the girl sat, exhausted out of her mind, sitting in the dark at the kitchen table. Her attire now consisted of a black and dark pink corset and a pair of shorts, something he could never quite imagine the girl in but was proved wrong by her gracefulness in an outfit like that.

The girl looked over at him, "Awake again? Can't sleep?"

Kai shook his head a bit, inhaling through his teeth, "It's been a bit of an off night." He just said.

Saku put down the papers and gripped the table to stand up, "Want some coffee?" she asked him, Kai raising a hand at her that made her pause her movement.

"You're working...I'll get it." In Kai's mind, to him the least he could do for her was make her coffee.

"Thanks..." she murmured, sitting back down and looking back at her work. Before she knew it a steaming mug of coffee had been placed in front of her and she smiled up at Kai in thanks before turning back to all she had to do. After just a second she put it back down again and looked back at the loner, watching him sip his coffee, "You're not going back to sleep?" she asked him. She got a shake of his head, having expected it. In her mind things went that once a loner took their morning coffee, no matter what the time, they wouldn't be falling asleep so quickly. She stood up slowly, picking up her work and her mug of coffee, "I'm going downstairs to do some work, come with me, I don't want t leave you up here alone."

"I'll be fine up here; I'm just going to lie down for a while." Kai insisted, placing his now empty mug in the sink.

Sakura nodded, back to her dictator-like ways, "And you _will_ lie down, but downstairs where I know you're safe." She walked as far as the doorway when she made a hand gesture for her to follow him which he did without more arguments regarding the subject. Kai made himself comfortable on the wooden staircase while Saku sat at the desk, both of them going quiet for countless minutes in which whisperingly Saku voiced the lyrics Kyo had worked so hard on. She rubbed at her throat, feeling the sudden stiffness of it from the cold, putting down her work again. She turned round, looking at Kai leaning hard against the wooden banister as he'd already begun to grow tired. "Kai..." She called to him loudly, a hint of sympathy in her voice, having not realized sooner just how tired he actually was, "Go back upstairs and get some sleep." she ordered him, turning her body to be able to look at him.

Kai naturally groaned the second he'd heard her voice breaking through to him but he protested as he wiped sleep out of his eyes, "I won't be able to sleep." He told her.

"Come here..." Sakura called, looking forward at the wall in front of her, fumbling with a pen that was on the desk. It took Kai a lot longer than she expected to show up beside her, apparently he'd been contemplating for a long time or just hoping to avoid the situation. He probably knew a talk was coming along. She pulled a chair beside her, the same one Tala had been sitting on last time he was in the basement talking to Kyoshi. Kai sat down beside her, staring at everything on the table to avoid the gaze of the other girl. While he sat there, Sakura had opted to avoid conversation, he didn't want it, she didn't want it, why start it when things were okay? In an attempt to at least get half of her work done she put on the headphones to the player and hit play, listening over the instrumental that the group had all worked so hard on while she tried to piece together the lyrics with the music, at one point mumbling something louder than she thought about Kyoshi making some of his writing too difficult. Well...putting it together with the music is the difficult part but when she can be bothered to work he'd be off sleeping or something of the sort.

None of the lyrics on the page where in English, spare two lines close to the bottom so that's why Kai couldn't understand much when he'd looked over at Saku's work. Luckily the lyrics where all in romaji, rather than kanji since it naturally made it easier for a lyricist to write songs in romaji rather than kanji. His romaji was still a little rough but to him, the little bit he understood of the work, he could already tell that it was an important song that it was something that Kyo had really worked on with his heart rather than just writing random things.

A moment later a thin arm snaked over both his shoulders, tugging at him gently for him to rest his head on the girl's shoulder. Her hand moved up and down along his arm, adding a gentle warmth to his cold skin. Upon looking at her she'd turned to look at him too, "You alright?" she whispered, having paused her music apparently. Still thinking she was going to start an intervention, he pulled together his energy and moved himself off her shoulder, only for her to grip his shoulder with surprising strength, "No wonder you can't sleep, the second you relax you tense up again." She told him in a scolding tone.

Though he couldn't help it, something in that scolding tone brought him to relax. He wasn't sure what but whatever it was she said, or however the way she said it, it worked because for a moment he thought about himself enough to relax. Even though it didn't last very long. The moment he looked up at her again was when he'd heard the music being blasted in her ears again and watching her continue her work like she'd never said a word and as though his weight on her side wasn't bothering her. He sighed quietly, more to himself since he knew for certain that the girl couldn't hear him and after just another moment, hosted himself up off the chair. He turned to leave, having not noticed that the girl took out the headphones at his action, "Kai?"

"What?" Was all Kai could bite back, more bitterness in his voice than he'd actually intended.

"Going to get some sleep?" She asked, obviously avoiding the question she was dieing to ask (but trying so hard to avoid).

"Yeah." Kai replied simply. Having made it up the stairs he felt he should say something else and turned to look down at her, "Maybe you should too." He added.

Sakura smiled, she could tell he could be kind when he wanted to, "Yeah, I will soon." She gave him a brisk nod and turned back to her work, having seen how badly Kai actually wanted to leave. She shook her head of overwhelming thoughts that all included the younger boy, thoughts which she tried to bury with work. Knowing well-enough that if Kyoshi caught her pulling an all-nighter she'd be scolded for it, she agreed in her mind that she'd just get an hour's worth of work done. Then proceed to getting some well-needed and well-deserved sleep.

For that whole one hour Sakura fought off the exhaustion as best she could, the pounding music in her ears being as helpful as could be. By the end, with a great relieved exhale she heavily slammed down the pages she'd kept in her hands for so long. Taking a look at her watch, it read 4:20am and she groaned at the sight of it. With a tired heave she brought herself to stand up, shaking her head a bit as she walked up the flight of stairs. Subconsciously she ended up standing outside the bedroom door of the two male teens and without another thought she quietly opened the door and peeked inside. She walked in slowly, almost tip-toeing so she wouldn't wake either of the boys. She stood by Tala's side, looking down at him as he lay sleeping soundly on his stomach, resting his head on both his arms. While he didn't look like he was most comfortable, he looked fine to her. That brought her to walk to the other side of the bed, watching Kai finally sleeping safe and sound.

To her Kai was just a lot like Kyoshi, acting one way when he was awake but when he was asleep he looked what she had described as adorable. Though of course she'd never dare say that to either of them. At that moment Kai shifted his bdoy on the bed, turning onto his side and the movement made Saku fear he'd caught her. A quiet moment of the male not moving nor indicating that he was stirring, made Sakura think otherwise. She lowered one hand gently, lifting one of the covers and pulling it higher up the boy's body as she'd seen him shudder, possibly from cold. That was the craziness of Japan, one moment you've got a heat wave and just when you've got every air conditioning in the house working thunder storms start up outside. Though that was the last bit of movement Kai needed to wake up, grabbing hold tightly onto the girl's gentle cut up hand that had been just above his shoulder.

His eyes surprised eyes shot open and just in front of him stood Sakura who looked a little upset that she'd been caught. "Just me." She assured him quietly though.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" Kai asked through gritted teeth.

"Came to check on Tala before I went to bed." The girl replied innocently, pulling her hand carefully out of his tense one. Really, she didn't want to tell him that he was her main concern when she'd stepped inside. Actually, neither of them where her concern when she walked in. She'd done it without knowing it but when she'd got in she was curious to see how he was. She'd always been a little curious about him, in fact. She watched him sigh, turning onto his back and falling back against the pillows. With that she comfortingly placed a hand on his shoulder, "Sorry I startled you. Go back to sleep." Was about all she could bring herself to say to him without revealing any of her true intentions. Before he could reply, nor could he react she turned and made a quiet break for the bedroom door, stepping out and closing the door behind her.

**A/N: A long chapter as always. Sorry for the delay, school's started again and naturally that's a pain so forgive me. I've got 117 more days of school(not including weekends and holidays) after that writing's got me all to itself till I find the school I want to go to. Take care everyone and please leave a review!**


	16. Notice

_**Notice**_

My current story, "Blades Will Be Drawn" will probably be put on hold for a while due to some difficulties. The story hasn't been going too well either so I'm going to take some time to work on it.

In the meantime I'm going to be writing the sequel to Cats And Dogs since the story seemed to be loved so much. The first chapter will be up sometime soon so look forward to it.

Sincerely yours,

Usagi-chan, Phoenix From The Flames 1978


	17. Moments

_**Chapter 16**_

Next morning Kai woke up later than he'd liked, to a perfectly silent house in which he assumed that everyone had gone out and Kyoshi was probably hiding from the sun in the dingy basement of his. With the thought in mind that no one was home he hadn't expected to enter the kitchen to Sakura sitting there with her work. "Good Morning sunshine." She said cheerily, standing up quickly and moving to the counter to make him coffee, before his mind was even able to calculate that she'd gotten up to do anything. While he rubbed his eyes and sat down at table, before he knew it there was a hot mug of coffee sitting in front of him. He mumbled a thank you but the girl seemed to have just grunted and gone back to her work. While shuffling through pages, not looking up at the boy she spoke up to him, "Slept well?" was her question.

It took Kai another moment to take in the question but replied smartly, "Before or after you tried to give me a heart attack?" he asked her.

"I already apologized for that. Do I need to apologize again?" Sakura asked him a little skeptically.

Kai glared a bit at her for coming close to over reacting, "No but either way, my answer remains the same, I slept fine."

"You sure? 'Cause in all honesty you look like crap." Sakura wasn't one to be careful of what she said, or whether she hurt anyone's feelings or not with her words and it was her greatest flaw, naturally amongst other things. She wasn't about to argue with herself about being rude to people. She just wasn't the sort to act that way.

"Thanks." Kai said sarcastically, nodding almost uncontrollably from exhaustion.

Saku smirked, putting the papers back down onto the table, "You know I don't mean it like that." Resting her arms on the table and resting her head on them.

"I slept fine."

"Then tell me, why do you look like you just came out of a zombie movie, any other reason aside from not sleeping well?"

"How many times must I repeat myself?"

Sakura placed her hands firmly on his shoulders, gripping them tightly, "Till you break down and tell the truth." She replied, letting go and standing up. "So tell your dear screamer, why do you look like the undead?" she asked again.

"Because I've already gone through a whole cup of coffee and I can't enjoy it!" Kai spat rudely, glaring up at her just as she'd turned round at the sound of his cruel tone.

She sighed, prying his mug out of his hands to refill it, "No need to be so rude. That's the reason I got up, to make you more coffee." Now she knew that he felt bad about his sudden outburst but she made no attempt at comforting him on the subject. Instead she just dropped the mug in front of him again and went back to sitting down at table. "There's no need to lash out like that. You should try start out your days as relaxed as you possibly can."

"Thank you, doctor." Kai mumbled coldly, then washing out his own bitterness with a sip of hot coffee.

Sakura laughed at the sound of that, "Hardly a doctor, that'd be Kyoshi rather. But I do mean it, over the years I've found out that if you wake up in a good mood and try to prolong that good mood till at least 2pm you've got a better chance of ending the day _not_ suicidal." She nodded at her own thoughts, "Yeah, that was it. Being in a good mood till 2pm kept me out of suicidal moods."

"I never would have guessed you were ever suicidal." Came Kai's sarcastic remark, supposedly thinking he knew better after watching her fight so recklessly.

"Were you never taught not to tease the suicidal girl?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him. She got a shake of the boy's head in reply to her question and she grunted at that, "That figures. So…why so grumpy?"

"Still tired." Kai mumbled angrily to himself.

"Now was that so hard for you to say?" Sakura asked, a playful smirk on her face that she knew irritated him.

"If I didn't say it you wouldn't leave me in peace for the rest of the day."

"You got that right…then again I only do it for your own good." She shifted in her seat, her elbow on the table to support her head while she read over her work but still allowed room for conversation. "Why don't you go back to bed? There's no reason for you to be awake, you've got nothing to do, Tala's downstairs with Kyoshi and it's not like I need company."

Kai shook his head, then brushing a strand of hair out of his face, sitting up and staring at the ceiling, almost seeming upset, "Once I'm this awake its hard to go back to sleep."

Sakura nodded, "I suppose that's plausible." She murmured, "Well I've got some errands to run today. I need to get the rest of my gauge done again, then I need to go look for someone. You're welcome to join me if you don't want to stay here doing nothing and if you think your stomach is strong enough."

Despite Kai's high tolerance for pain, looking at the size two gauges on Sakura's ears made him wince slightly, "That's got to hurt." He commented.

His words had supposedly struck something in Saku, making the raven-haired girl laugh quietly, "I didn't think you were one with _that_ much of a weak stomach."

"That's not it…It's just that even here in Japan, you don't see many girls ready to gauge their ears or pierce every part of themselves."

"I hope you're not implying that girl's are too weak to get piercings are you?" Her eyes depicted her seriousness suddenly, a seriousness that wasn't much to compare to her usual seriousness, but seriousness nonetheless.

The Russian laughed softly, shaking his head, "Not at all."

"Good…" She relaxed, smirking, "And just to let you know, I haven't got that many piercings."

Kai tilted his head to the side a little, looking at her for a moment before blankly saying, "I count at least twelve."

Sakura winced jokingly, "Ah so close, yet so far away." She said in a humorous tone, "I've got six on my left ear, including one gauge, five on my right ear, including one gauge. Three in my lip, one on the right side and two on the left side. My tongue is pierced too and two for my navel." She could see it was taking Kai a moment to take it in and used it to her advantage at another witty remark, "In case you can't count, that makes it seventeen."

"And…" Kai started, possibly a little breathlessly, "Kyoshi is okay with all that? He seems like the type that would count that as self-mutilation or something."

"Kyoshi? Hardly." She laughed, sitting back, crossing her arms, "I grew up knowing Kyoshi, I idolized him, and same with the piercings. I loved all of his and then did some of my own. He just chooses not to wear his so often anymore. In all honesty, he was the one that did my navel piercings and my third lip one, he's hardly against it." She watched him intently, smiling at the bit of reaction, "You're not much of a fan of piercings are you?"

Kai smiled at the intonation in which her words had been said, "I've got three, all on my ears but that's just it. I'm not much of a fan of them on women though, not many at least. Although, it would be great having a girlfriend who didn't think of them as stupid or something."

"I know that. My dad is completely against them, everyone one around them was completely against them and while Kyoshi just told me I should be careful what I do, it was great having him be so supportive of what I wanted."

"I just think…no matter what happens, it's always good to have at least one person on your side." That was something Kai had just said randomly. Something that had just seemed to roll off his tongue, rather than him thinking about it before he said it.

It made Sakura smile a little more, just a faint honest smile that had graced her lips as the conversation grew, "I think if everyone was completely against me, I don't think I'd survive it." She shrugged, speaking honestly in hopes it'd bring some honesty out of him.

"I think it's the same for me…though I think I'm lucky enough to not have felt that for the past year or so."

"Not remembering feelings like those is a great thing, better than it sounds actually, because it means that you're over it and that you haven't been thinking about it."

"You're talking as though it's all your own experience."

"Well it is after all, I've lived nineteen years but I've done a lot in those nineteen years but the best part is that I can laugh about it now and that I've got a backpack full of experience for myself, and those around me."

"My father believed experience was the key to everything, though he never lived long enough to pass it on to me. All I can say is just that if you have kids, live long enough to pass on your knowledge to them, one way or another. Otherwise they just feel lost." Though as knowledgeable as all that sounded, Kai didn't know what exactly it was that he was saying anymore.

"You're good. Though you won't have to worry about that happening, I'm not having kids."

"Really?" Kai asked in a disbelieving tone, rather confused at the same time, suddenly covering up his interest, "I think you'd make a great mom, and Kyoshi a great dad, I guess he would since he already sometimes treats _us_ like kids."

"As sweet as that sounds that you said I'd be a great mom, it really isn't true. I'm not good with kids, at all. The only practice I have with taking care of kids is with some orphans and some half-siblings and that's it. Also, I'm hardly mother material."

"That's what _my_ mom said, though of what I've heard she was proved very wrong."

That was the one indication that the girl had that Kai's immediate family was no longer alive but on topic, she wasn't about to comment on a subject that was that sensitive just yet. Clearly he'd said something that was for her ears only and just for some advice and sharing, she wasn't about to turn it into an attack on him. "Maybe…but still, I can't have kids, so what I want or what Kyoshi wants doesn't matter."

A very faint tint of pink filled the younger boy's cheeks, a hand going to the back of his head as he thought stupidly of himself, "Now I feel stupid." He mumbled.

Sakura laughed, "Don't. I didn't tell you sooner so you wouldn't have known and besides, it was my fault. I wasn't careful…I was reckless as I always am and I got shot…pretty badly. Doctors said I was 'lucky' to have come out of it alive and that it was a tough job putting my body back together. Although doctors are always too negative, you noticed they always tell you what your body can't do but never what it can do?" she shrugged a bit, crossing her arms, "Though looking back I guess I see why Kyoshi worries so much." She stood up, sliding an ashtray and her cigarettes off the counter before sitting back down, smoking she stared up at the ceiling, "Though lately he seems to worry about every little thing. Its annoying and excessive."

In Kai's mind he just wanted to blurt it out so that she wouldn't be so clueless but it wasn't in his place to say anything, just like Kyoshi probably hadn't told her anything yet for the same reason. "Maybe he just knows something that you don't." his eyes had been drawn to her cigarette though, just when she'd tapped the ashes into the tray and he saw the six cigarette buds sitting there burnt out, "Though either way you shouldn't be smoking so much." He added.

Sakura groaned, rolling her eyes at that comment, "I think you and Kyoshi think the same way because these days every time he sees me light one of these he looks at me like he's upset and going to say something but then he just shuts up."

"Then talk to him. For all you know there might be a lot of things he wants to tell you."

"I'll probably talk to him tonight…although for now I'd like to enjoy my afternoon. So…you coming with me or not?"

"Might as well." Kai shrugged a little, standing up and putting his mug in the sink. "As long as I don't have to hold your hand while you have you're ear pulled open." He added jokingly.

She laughed, honestly, "You won't have to. It doesn't hurt all that much, for me at least."

"Good, last thing I want to hear is screaming."

"You won't be hearing that…from me at least." The raven-haired girl reassured with a smirk.

Kai, feeling something heavy taking a slight toll on his body, sat back down at table, exhaling quietly, then looking up at the girl with blankness in his eyes, "Can I ask you a personal question?"

The smile on her face just grew a little bigger, "The whole conversation we've had within the last hour has been personal, go ahead and ask."

He stared down at his hands intently, like they held the most interesting thing in the world up until he had calculated that he had to bring himself to speak, "You said you were shot really badly, right?"

"I believe I did."

"Why aren't you scared now? What I'm trying to say is…after such a bad experience like that, wouldn't you be scared of guns and stuff? But the sound of guns being set off all around you doesn't bother in the slightest, why?"

Sakura stood up, apparently startling Kai at first until she sat down in front of him on the table. She looked down at him with a blankness of her own on her features, though a faint something sparkling in her eyes, she looked away, "My dad…he's some big politician, has a lot of money so he sent me to the best shrink in the country for a whole year." She looked at him again, strength and somewhat support in her eyes, "There's no amount of money in the world that can erase what happened, from time and from my mind but I'm living for the present…I'll think about how much I screwed up in that gun fight when I'm thirty and I can't walk anymore." She shook her head a bit, she hadn't been getting through to him so she grabbed his hand, "I've got plenty of time to regret what I've done but this isn't the time, far from it. I have a lot of things to do and I can't let stupid mistakes of the past distract me, otherwise I could just make bigger mistakes."

"How do you know when it's the right time then?"

"You just know. And the time to be regretting things is when you're on your deathbed which isn't now." She jumped off the table and turned to him, she lifted her shirt slightly, perfect scar less pale skin was all he could see just before she put her shirt back down and put his hand on his own shoulder, "If your body can heal all the physical wounds, what's stopping you from letting yourself heal your mental and emotional wounds?"

He wasn't quite sure what to do about what she said, still embracing all she'd said but doing it in his own monotonous and cold way, just before smirking, "I just wanted an answer…not a lecture." Obviously saying it in a joking manner, as actually he had been grateful for her words.

Saku smirked and shook her head, abate all seriousness as she stared off somewhere else in the room, "I thought I'd try help you out. Sorry for wasting your time." She apologized.

"It wasn't a waste." He stood up, making her take a step back to leave him room to step up.

"I'm glad. Go take a shower, relax for an hour and we'll leave here at two, okay?" She got a nod of reply from him and she watched him walk out of the room. She sat back down, rubbing at her stomach for some warmth as it stung rather painfully. She distracted herself, just staring up at a point on the ceiling till she could feel bothered enough to get up and do something. Though something in particular did pray on her mind quite a bit. The fact that Kyoshi and Kai knew something that she didn't.

**---A Week Later---**

The week had passed by uneventfully to a degree. Tala had become rather terrified of every move he'd made after seeing Hana appear in the bathroom sink, and again when he was making coffee, and again on the floor after he'd dropped a glass of water. After that Kai had begun to stay closer to him to make sure Hana didn't even touch him, more than ready to defend his best friend if it came to that. Kyoshi wasn't too far off but at the time he also had his own responsibilities to tend to. Sakura had had that important talk with Kyoshi and her 'greatest fear' had been confirmed, almost giving her the fright of her life at the same time.

Apparently Kai had known from the bit he'd heard from Kyoshi. And Kyoshi had found out because of his knowledge of women and his degree in biology. Although the fact that the woman was his own fiancé, already helped a lot. Then again his vampire skills just did enough for him as they were. Needless to say he'd had plenty of confirmation on the subject yet he could never bring himself to tell Sakura. Thinking that it was her privacy that she deserved and he thought he'd just let her figure it out by herself.

Then Kai had apparently found out from a chat they'd had that fine day when they were alone and the Russian couldn't help but hint at the subject. Supposedly he couldn't just watch the girl walk around in circles of a matter that was really hard on her and that she should know about. Sakura really was appreciative for that but she didn't show it, at the time she just had a hard time dealing with everything. She was getting heavily frustrated with every little thing that happened and she'd refuse to sit down for more than an hour. Kyoshi had insisted she sit down and relax and that he'd cook dinner for her but she refused heavily, stating that if she couldn't cook she'd really have nothing to do.

She'd denied the news for the first hour or so since Kyoshi had told her but having gone out to buy a test the next morning things were confirmed and it was undeniable any longer. She was a person that wouldn't deny things if she had proof of them and after that no one heard her mention the mere word of the subject. She just stayed quiet. Amazingly quiet. It wasn't that she was disappointed with the news. Just worried that things wouldn't work out well, that things would go wrong and history could repeat itself or she wouldn't do anything right. Of all of them she had the hardest time dealing with the news while the others didn't quite mind.

Kai was passive as always and didn't really take part of the whole situation in any way. He just sat back and watched as the week flew by and he took care of his friend. Tala was of most help to Sakura since she'd occasionally shut Kyoshi out when she was acting moody on the particular subject. After about three days Sakura had given herself a few hours to calm down and relax to adjust to all the news and feelings. Giving herself a few hours to console herself for the first time in a while. Kyo was always obviously there to help her and that care never faltered, no matter what happened between them but he accepted that she was occasionally in a mood with him. The two had come to disagree quite a lot since she was rather fussy and Kyo just wanted to look after her.

The main occasion was this one. A whole week since the news had struck the girl like the sharpest cold-hearted bullet that had ever sliced through her body. Kyoshi had tried his hardest to convince her to go to a doctor, to make sure that the test was correct and to find out where they went from there. The girl, being the stubborn and stoic girl she was naturally refused, then agreed but to go by herself, but Kyoshi, being the over-caring vampire _he_ was, obviously disagreed with her but was left unable to do anything. Except convince one of his only other options to.

"You called me?" Kai asked from by the bedroom door.

"Yeah, I need to ask you a favor." Straight to the point.

Kai hadn't been up to doing many favors lately, since he'd been spending an extra few hours awake to keep an eye on Tala, tiredness was beginning to get to him, "I'll try."

"I need you to go with Sakura to the doctor tomorrow morning." Another straight to the point statement.

"No way, she'll kill me if I go with her, besides she deserves her privacy."

"She won't kill you. She needs someone to go with her tomorrow and I evidently can't go."

"She carries a gun with her everywhere." Kai pointed out matter-of-factly.

"It doesn't mean she'll kill you with it." He said through gritted teeth, failing at remaining calm.

Kai sat down on the bed, "She might." He commented quickly, "But either way, she doesn't want me with her and I should respect that and you should too."

Kyoshi almost took that as a personal offence but thankfully hadn't, otherwise it would have been a bigger argument, "I do respect her. And I respect her enough to even know she can't go there alone."

"Fine…I'll go but when she's furious and throwing a tantrum you're the one dealing with it."

"Definitely."

"Aren't you just Mr-State-The-Obvious? I get it…I have to take care of her, I'll manage, don't worry." As if on queue Sakura walked past the bedroom and into the living room and with that Kyoshi and Kai followed her, "Where are you going now?" he was a little on the alert with her lately, careful she didn't go overboard.

"Out to look for that girl, I haven't seen her in almost a week and I'm worried." Saku adjusted the collar of her denim jacket in front of the mirror, then turning to look at him as she buttoned the jacket all the way to her chest. She'd begun feeling cold a lot lately, even though it was only mild rain and wind nowadays. "I'll be back within an hour, I promise."

"Can't you wait till it get's dark? At least then I can come with you."

"I think she hides…when it starts to get dark. Don't worry, I'll be back soon." Her hand went to his cheek in a hurry as she gave him a peck on the cheek, then walked hurriedly out the front door.

Kyoshi heard Kai laughing quietly from behind him and the vampire shot a death glare at him. Although Kai was quick to defend himself with a sarcastic comment, "You keep her under so much control, the precautions are amazing."

"Oh bite me." Kyo shot back at him.

Tala stepped into the living room, looking around at the two males, "What's the matter?" he asked curiously.

Kyo exhaled and shook his head, "Nothing, it's nothing." He turned to Tala, giving him a solid supportive grip onto his shoulder as he walked past and back into his bedroom, sitting abruptly onto his bed. "Don't just stand there looking at me like that." Kyoshi mumbled unhappily to the red-head standing in his doorway again.

"You've even got _Kai_ worried."

The vampire lay back comfortably against his pillows, staring up at his ceiling in thought, a hand to his forehead, "I can't believe I resorted to asking him to do me a favor. It's not like I have something against asking the guy for favors, it's just that I hate asking favors from someone who generally doesn't like doing favors and who really doesn't have anything to do with the situation."

Now Tala wasn't best at comforting people, it was far from being his forte but at least he tried and lately, he wouldn't just give up on something because he thought he couldn't do it. Lately Kyoshi had been teaching him a lot, a lot of things that Kyoshi had to go through as a former-mortal and current vampire that Tala could use after leaving the Abbey. Over the days, the more exhausted Tala had become from fear of Hana, the more sensitive he grew to everything and everyone around him. It just seemed that this was one of those moments where he felt at his most sensitive, "Well you and Saku," also over the days he'd gotten close enough to Sakura to start feeling comfortable shortening her name, "took us in so you could protect us. Kai knows that now too so he wouldn't mind doing you a favor." He'd walked over to the bed by now, sitting at the foot of it and staring in his new friend's direction.

"Even if she will try to blow my head clear off my shoulders." Kai joined in just a moment later. He watched Kyo sit up on the bed and look at him with a sort of blankness in his eyes as he was unsure on how to feel at the time, "Now I don't know much about the situation you're in, I've never been in that kind of position but if things turn out well at the doctor tomorrow and he approves everything you already know, then you're going to be a dad so for just a minute stop thinking about how it effect her and how it effects you. You're so caught up in worrying about her and your relationship with her that you don't even know how you feel about it yet."

"That's not true, I know exactly how I feel about it." Kyoshi retorted angrily, pouting a little childishly once Kai glared at him. While he did in fact know how he felt regarding the situation, he didn't press any further and didn't react when he ended up having both teenagers sitting at the foot of his bed.

"Don't you have anyone that helps you and Sakura out since you're…indisposed for most of the day?" Kai asked interestedly. "If she's always working outside of the house and you're always stuck in here…how do you ever know for sure if she's safe when she's away from you?"

Kyoshi sat up and sat cross-legged and looking in Kai's direction, looking past Tala's rather curious look, "The other band members don't know about me, they just know I hate going out during the day and they accept it."

"Sounds like the typical Japanese band these days." Kai murmured to himself, flashes of different and strange JRock band members crossing his mind.

Kyo just glared very lightly, "We have two friends, Nin and Ren. Nin is like a childish little girl who sticks to Saku a lot and looks after me more than she does Sakura, she's too easily intimidated by Saku's strength for me to have sent her. As for Ren…Ren and Sakura are really good friends and while Sakura wouldn't dare say no, Ren is far too innocent and scared of people to be put in that kind of line of fire. You were the only other option I had left." Sincerity really was something that had become part of Kyoshi's DNA over the past years. On the inside, he'd assumed it came from the idea that if he wanted to get anywhere in his afterlife or whatever you wanted to call it, then he had to be honest about everything.

"I don't mind going with her, but the thing is that she will."

Tala raised his head from where he'd been staring at a crease in the black leather of the bed, looking slowly from Kai to Kyoshi as they fired continuous glares at each other. "Can I say something?" he asked, looking at both again as their eyes suddenly coaxed him to talk. "I think that…Sakura is dealing with a lot but even though it's a lot…I still think she's strong enough to handle things however she wants. Someone should go with her to the doctor tomorrow, but if she puts up a fight and it looks like it'll make her feel worse then just accept what she wants and don't go." He went and made eye contact again with his two friends, seeing a rather confused expression in their eyes, they probably didn't know he could make so much sense or understood so much. "I'm just saying that the last thing she wants is to be treated like a little kid when she clearly isn't."

Kyoshi smiled and nodded, looking away, "If you don't mind me saying…whatever it was in your past that you think messed you up, did you a lot more good than you think it did because through it all, you think a lot more clearly than I do."

A vague tint of red could be seen on the redhead's cheeks if you looked close enough, "It's just something that I thought about." He passed off, shrugging slightly as he stood up and walked over to the door way to stand there where he'd feel a little less intimidated.

"Tal…why don't you go downstairs and wait for me, we could do some more practice?" Kyoshi smiled at him as he did almost everyone else that knew him well enough. He received a nod of reply and he watched him disappear from the corridor and hearing him walk down the hall to the basement door and down the steps.

"Practice what?" Kai asked, trying not to sound too curious.

The blonde vampire smiled softly, "Guitar, he seemed so bored sitting around watching me play for so long, I thought I'd teach him a few things." He watched him nod in perfect understanding of the situation, "He's not trying to replace beyblading but…I guess he just needed a short break from it."

Kai smirked slightly, as if in his own little world finding it somewhat humorous, "No surprise there…we all do."

"He knows…for a fact that Hana had his blade taken from him and him buried alive because of the power in his beyblade. He doesn't want Hana to have that power, but at the same time he doesn't want to tap into it for himself, no one should force him to have power he doesn't want and I just tried to get his mind off things that were upsetting him. No matter how tough you think Tala became over the years, that's still a whole new level of abuse for his mind."

There was a dull throbbing pain in Kai's heart as he thought about what the vampire was saying to him and it all made sense to him, strangely enough, but of course he wasn't willing to admit that so easily, "I'm just glad he's open with you…he needs to be open with someone at least." He got up and made his way to the living room but Kyoshi had beat him there, avoiding the corridor that Kai had taken by passing through the curtain that separated the bedroom from the other room. The vampire almost instinctively grabbed Kai's forearm, his thumb pressing down harder than originally intended, the two then finally making eye contact.

"Give me a minute to talk okay? All I want to do is help." Those words seemed to have stopped the Russian, Kyoshi's hold on him loosening up so slightly it was barely even noticeable, "Kai…I know that to you it looks like Tala doesn't talk to you about what's going on but really, he doesn't want to talk about everything in his past because he's…he's just scared that he'll bring up a subject you won't like or he'll bring up unpleasant memories for you…" he finally let go of him after their eye contact had been broken, "If you don't want to talk about the abbey with him than that's fine with him, but he just wants you to know that it's not because he doesn't trust you."

Kai smirked, walking to the far end of the room and leaning back against the wall, "I don't care about that."

"That's not true and you know it." Kyoshi argued, a hint of disgust at Kai's bad lie in his voice, "You do care and I can tell that it bothers you a lot more than you let on." He sat down on the back of the armchair, feet firmly planted on each arm rest, "Believe it or not Kai, you _are_ in fact human and like every other _decent_ human on this earth, you want to take care of your friend…you just don't know how to do it and _that's_ what you're scared of." He smirked softly, staring at the ground not too far in front of him, a nostalgic feeling in his heart as he tried to concentrate on the other's feelings and speak what he understood, "You don't know how to comfort a person because the opportunity hardly ever arose, when it did you did it your own tough-love way but you already know you can't do that for Tala, you know it'll break him."

Kai knew that Kyoshi was right in every possible way, and he hated it so much that Kyo was that sensitive to have been able to get Tala's trust in little time and single out his feelings when he barely could. His heart was beating too fast for him to even keep tabs on it any more, he just let it go as fast as it wanted to while he tried to listen to Kyoshi's words over it.

Kyo put his legs together and slid off the back of the armchair and into its seat, crossing his arms against his chest, "I'm not a very religious person…honestly after becoming a vampire you kinda learn to lose that kind of faith. Although, I strongly believe things happen for a reason and I think the reason Tala and you were both pushed into our care is so that you can learn from us. Obviously, Saku and I aren't the best examples in the world, we're probably the most flawed people to walk this planet but we can still teach you some things. I can teach you how to look out for Tala without entirely putting yourself through an emotional rollercoaster, and at the same time Saku can teach you a lot about taking care of yourself. Believe it or not, she's very reliable and a lot more cautious than we all give her credit for."

The throbbing pain had moved to the Russian's tense shoulders and neck, this making him feel even more stiff and uncomfortable beneath the other's words. He sat down on the sofa, staring in the direction of the closed window, "I trust her advice. I trust yours too." He stated slowly, a nod accompanying it as he turned to look at the blonde at the end of his statements.

Said blonde smiled back softly, getting up and abruptly setting himself back down beside the younger boy, crouching on the sofa rather than sitting, almost giving him a childish entity, "You just don't know how to ask for our help."

Kai bit down on the inside of his mouth, a bad habit he had when he was trying endlessly to think of ways to do things and being unsuccessful in finding an answer, "How do I tell Tala to get over things that not even I could get over?"

"You make him learn from your mistakes…luckily he's already started doing that without you needing to tell him. But just because he's recovering a bit faster than you ever did, that's no reason to beat yourself up, if it weren't for you taking the path you chose then he wouldn't have learnt for himself." He watched other make no reaction to his words at all, probably being deep in thought and after giving him a few more minutes as a chance to speak, Kyoshi smiled that he'd at least had a little breakthrough in Kai's character, "I don't want to leave Tala waiting any longer." He gripped the back of the sofa as he hauled himself up, walking past Kai while ruffling his hair like any father would do their child after a long talk.

The sole person in the room waited until Kyo was long down the hall and out of sight, then allowing himself to take a deep and well-needed breath to clear his lungs and stomach of its tightness of stress. After contemplating on it, he got off the sofa and walked down the hall, arriving to the basement door and opening it very slowly. He stepped inside, standing on the wooden landing of the stairs and staring down at the two that hadn't seemed to notice him as of yet. He settled down on the top step after closing the door softly behind him, sitting there and watching the other two engage in quiet conversation with smiles.

"What's the problem?" he heard the vampire ask his friend, tugging slightly on his jeans to be able to settle on the ground comfortably.

That was where Tala was, sitting on the ground, a small stack of papers in front of him and an acoustic guitar pressed against him, "That bits the worst." He groaned in silence, pointing to a particular line of notes on the page he was currently working on. He was a quick study, he'd learnt how to read some notes already and it'd only been about two or three days at the most that he'd actually been learning them.

"That part's easy, try it again." Kyoshi was always a sensitive person, a very helpful person at that but when he knew a person could do better he was hardly ever too easy on them.

Tala continued to eye the notes on the sheet, then watching his hands on the frets and strings of the guitar, hearing the sound that came out to be rather distorted and groaning louder this time, "I can't do this!" he complained in a quiet tone.

That took Kai aback a bit, in his eyes Tala was hardly ever the type to give up on himself but to some new things, he supposed even the redhead was entitled to being frustrated. At the same time, he couldn't help but laugh very vaguely upon seeing the rather irritated look on his friend's face, finding it a very…different thing to see in terms of the redhead.

Kyoshi laughed, stretching to his side to grab his own acoustic guitar from its case which had been lying abandoned in a corner, picking it up and playing over the note quickly and easily, barely even needing to take a glance at the notes, "There. Easy." He told him once it had been done.

"You _wrote_ it! Of course you know how to play it." Tala complained, gently banging the palm of his hand against the wood that rested against him.

Kyo's smile never ceased as he moved his guitar aside, moving himself to kneel behind Tala, "If you relax a bit more and stop trying to do things so perfectly then you won't have such a hard time." he placed one hand over Tala's hand that had been grabbing at the neck of the guitar and doing the same with the other. He moved their fingers a little higher up the neck, adjusting the placing of Tala's fingertips and pressing down slightly against the frets. "Now try." Kyo instructed him softly, removing his hands from the other as he began playing the notes instructed, watching the boy's surprised face as the sound came out right.

Kai had seen just about enough as it was. It hadn't been that he didn't like what he saw, quite the opposite really. He got to watch, for the first time in a long time, Tala do something willingly that didn't have to do with training or beyblading. The first time they'd encountered Hana…that day was the day Kai had forced Tala to go swimming. Everything Tala did before that day was almost completely against his will, including the medication, the hospital visits and every other little thing. Now he saw his best friend do something he enjoyed and he did it out of his own free will. The reward for Kai's silence, he got to see his friend happy doing something he clearly wasn't all too bad at either.

He slowly got off the step, holding onto the wooden railing and making his way back up to the door when he was stopped once again, "Kai?" he looked back at the owner of that voice, the blonde who had just grilled him not too long before, "Are you going back upstairs?" he asked, receiving a nod, "Can you do me another favor? When Saku gets home, could you let me know?" Kai nodded in reply to that request, giving the friendly vampire a glimpse of a smile before walking out of the basement.

Tala's fingers continued to strum gently over some of the strings, his bright blue eyes gliding from the pages to his fingers, "Do you think I'm doing something wrong?"

Kyoshi turned away from the stairs, looking down at the notes, "No, that sounds just about right."

"I meant about Kai." Tala corrected, glancing at the other.

"Kai's fine...Like you, he's had a lot to adjust to." Kyoshi got off the ground and sat in the chair at his desk where he could continue the work he'd been slaving over for the past few days, "Stop thinking negatively." He mumbled, practically being able to feel the self-loath emitting from the other. "Three times…you've said it three times that things would've been better if you stayed in Russia but that would mean you would have died the first day Hana tried to come after you so what makes you think that you dieing would've been a lot less hurtful than what Kai feels now?"

Tala continued strumming at the acoustic in his arms, being at a loss for words as he stared for so long that his vision had lost focus and became aimless.

"What's done is done. You have to work with what you have now, rather than thinking about what you could've changed to make things better."

Tala's vision remained the same, but this time he had more of a reaction, nodding softly and mumbling, "I guess you're right." After that the two went back to locking themselves into their own little worlds where they were both at their safest, usually at least. Kyoshi had put his headphones on, resting his head in his hand as his pencil continued to adjust things on the page in front of him. Tala continued trying the work Kyo had left for him to practice, occasionally turning and looking back at the other when he could hear the music blasting from the headphones.

They'd been sitting like that for almost half an hour and after a while, Tala went to sit down on one of the steps and resting his head to the side against the wooden railings to rest for a few moments. He probably never realized how much pain you went through to play instruments, his neck was beginning to hurt so badly he was tempted to go lie down on a nice soft pillow. Unexpectedly, someone walked down and sat beside him for a moment. She smiled gratefully at him and he loved it when he watched her do that.

The first time he met Saku, he thought that she was one of the coldest human beings on earth and that even Kai didn't even come close to touching her attitude. He watched her be ready to leave Kyoshi in a battle field and she seemed like the most cruel person in the world. Then he understood why she did everything she did and found she wasn't as bad as everyone made her seem. Still, watching her smile was a beautiful sight to see.

Tala smiled back at her, finding no harm in the spare smile to her once in a while. She wrapped an arm over the boy's shoulders, giving him a quick kiss on his temple before patting his shoulder, "Would you mind going upstairs a bit? I need to talk to Kyo about some things." She saw the younger boy smile softly and nod, getting up and turning to leave.

Sakura got up at the same time, walking over to Kyoshi, smiling softly as the closer she got she could hear the music through the headphones, "Kyoshi." She called softly from behind him, crossing her arms, then repeating herself twice before uncrossing them again and placing both hands on his shoulders, feeling him jump from fright.

He looked back at her with a stone cold face, a bit of fright showing too. He turned face forward again, taking off his headphones while Saku moved beside him and sitting up on his desk, "Hell, you really know how to scare the dead to their graves." He breathed out quietly, putting down his headphones and pencil.

"Sorry, didn't mean it." Sakura smiled softly, her heavily ringed fingers moving forward and brushing a strand of blonde hair from the boy's face, "You look tired. Are you hungry?"

Kyoshi looked up at her a little strangely, a small pout forming on his lips, "You're in a strangely sweet mood, I take it something good happened?"

The smile on the other's pale face increased slightly as she shook her head, "Not particularly, no." she leaned a little closer to him, giving him a light peck on the lips, "If you're hungry, I've got a file upstairs for a very good candidate for your dinner."

The vampire smirked, standing up and returning the peck on the lips, his hot hand brushing lightly against her cooler cheek, then walking away to the other side of the room, "I'm not that hungry…I think I can hold it off for a few more days." He picked up the acoustic guitar and the tab pages, placing them on the desk and placing the guitar to the side of the room, "I'm not the one you should be concerned about though."

"The other two are fine, Tala looked a bit tired probably from some stress but as always, playing the guitar calms people down. Kai…I don't really know what he plans on accomplishing from three cups of coffee in ten minutes but I'll sort that out a little later but…"

"I'm not talking about them," Kyoshi looked up from the other end of the room, having been staring at his hands, "I'm talking about you."

The band's constantly screaming vocalist was strangely calm tonight, maybe it had been what possessed Kyoshi to come out and say what he had. She walked to him slowly, her heels sounding rhythmic against the wooden floorboards before she stood so close in front of him, her hot breath tickling his neck. Despite the physical calmness they both represented, Kyoshi almost felt fear that he'd upset her or that she was going to hit him. He shut his eyes tight when he saw her hand being raised but instead it just touched his cheek and when he opened his eyes to look at her he saw something entirely different in her eyes.

She seemed to be a bit…broken? If that was even the right way to describe it but at the same time she was holding it all together but holding it together in a way that it made her happy. Sometimes when he couldn't understand the way she really felt, he just became speechless how even after so many years of studying people, he was still able to find someone who kept his mind sharp. No matter how close they always were to each other, being truly affectionate with each other was rare. Kyoshi was always one who was more in touch with romance and love than Sakura was, almost every action towards her was out of love. Saku was a little less giving than that and wasn't always as loving to him, as almost everyone by now was fully aware so it was moments like these which were the moments that just made his heart beat faster.

As a vampire, you're hardly ever aware when your heart is beating. What's the difference? You're dead, are you not? Not entirely. Vampires in old fiction books feel dead because to everyone around them they are in fact dead so they stay hidden from them so they won't scare them. After that, they never meet anyone who can make them feel like their hearts are actually beating. Kyoshi was one of those fortunate ones… he knew there was only one person in the world that could make him feel like he was still a human being.

Now if only she fully understood what she meant to him and things would be perfect.

Sakura smiled rather softly, wrapping both arms around his neck and giving him a kiss on the corner of his mouth. Them embracing him tightly, her own cheek nuzzling against the other's neck, she could feel him wrapping his arms around her waist and rest on the small of her back.

To her, every little fight the two of them had in their lives, every moment they spent away from each other during the week because of her mood swings, it was all worth it when she felt this loved and cared for.

Kyoshi moved back to sit on the stairs, pulling the vocalist down with him. He sat back against one of the steps, Sakura resting in between his legs and against his chest, she loved being able to hear his heart beat when she could and most of all she just loved it when he held her like she was the only thing holding him to the earth. In a way, it was like that. She was the only reason that he was still alive…if he wanted to he could've given up on living a long time ago but he didn't, because he wanted to stay by her for as long as he could.

Saku kept an eye on her index finger as it traced along the lines of the other's arm muscles. She found it funny how at some points he moved his arm away, being reminded just how tickleish the boy actually was. She lifted her head from his chest after a while, the two sharing a long stare before she got off the step and placed a hand out for him to take. She helped him up, their smiles for the other never fading. There really was no point to their little moments like these but these little moments where they acted without a care in the world, were really moments that just helped their relationship grow. Their relationship wouldn't have survived if their little moments like these didn't exist.

"Are you going to come upstairs?" Saku asked in a whisper, turning to walk up the flight of stairs to the main floor. She looked back at him, seeing him stare at her as he shook his head, his soft smile still there. She continued to smile too, nodding, "Okay, try not to stay up too late." She ran up the stairs, out the door and into the well-lit hallway as opposed to Kyoshi's dark basement.

The dark vampire walked back to his desk after the door of upstairs closed and his room fell into darkness again. He sat back down comfortably, pulling his headphones back on and resting his head on his palm again. With his sweet content smile still on his face, he continued staring down at the romantic but partly heart-breaking lyrics he'd written out.

**A/N: So I was finally able to find a way to get back part of the chapter I had lost so that was the basis for this re-writing this chapter and it being updated again. I don't know if this story is actually being taken off its hiatus but I thought I'd update to make the time seem a little less long, you know? **

**This chapter was a bit of a tough one to work out but I'm hoping I didn't butcher it too much. At least I think I got some of the feelings in there alright. Well…I hope people haven't completely forgotten about this fic as of yet so please review, let me know what you think. Take care everyone!**


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